Enticed by a Thug Love

by Kelly, Marie

  Surge was my right-hand man. He dealt with the drug empire and escort service with me, but he oversaw the weapons.

  Next, our cousin, Pharaoh shoulder bumped me and nodded. He was our cousin, but when he turned sixteen, he came over and just never went home, so we came to see him as our brother. He was our father’s brother’s son and was twenty-six.

  The nigga didn’t look shit like us and was the mirror of his mama with his yellow ass and hazel eyes. He was a hitman for our family and called himself, Legion. At 6’3”, he was tall, his hair was low and wavy, and he kept his chin strap beard long like Surge. The nigga was covered in colorful ink all over his torso. His nose was broad, and his pink lips were thick.

  And the last person to greet me was our baby brother, Meshach or Guns. He was twenty-three and looked a lot like me when I was younger, with the same complexion, nose, eyes, and lips. He stood at 6’2” and was slim with muscles. Both of his sleeves were covered in tattoos. He kept a bald head, thin mustache, and had very little chin hair.

  Guns helped Surge with the gun empire, but he was a hitman too and often dealt with any problems we had with motherfuckers. The nigga was sick with his hands and guns. Nobody could out shoot my baby bro; hence, the name Guns.

  The four of us were the Ramsey brothers and had New York on lock.

  “What up, Wrath?” Guns called me by my street name while saluting me, and I pulled him in for a hug.

  Once our greetings were out of the way, Surge handed me a blunt and a bottle of Henny, and then we all took our seats.

  I quickly lit the blunt and took a long ass, much needed pull then slowly blew it out.

  “What happened?” Surge asked, and I chuckled because my brothers knew me too well.

  The three of them looked at me and waited for my response.

  “I just got word that some new niggas are in town and their eyes are on us.”

  Earlier, a solider had relayed some rumors that he heard, and ever since, I had been in a foul ass mood.

  Shit was going well, and had been for a minute, so I wasn’t beat for motherfuckers coming for us. Plus, I was trying my hardest to take shit easy for a minute because the city had already lost a few inhabitants recently because some niggas wanted to fuck with me.

  They didn’t call me Wrath for nothing.

  Taking another pull, I blew it out through my nose and took a swig of the Henny in my hands.

  “Where you hear that from?” Pharaoh asked.

  “Commission.”

  Commission was a nigga who knew a lot of fucking people and was in everybody’s shit. So, I knew that if he heard this rumor, it was definitely true. And judging from my brothers’ twisted faces, I knew that they knew it was true too.

  “I’m dealing with it, but I just wanted y’all to have a heads up. Watch your backs and who you’re walking with.”

  The only word I had was that they were from out of town and wanted the Ramsey Empire. I wasn’t worried, though, because I had my ways of finding shit out.

  “Just be on alert,” I told my brothers, and they all nodded.

  Drinks started to flow again, and I called a few women into our section to keep us entertained.

  Surge, being the hoe ass nigga of the group, immediately grabbed two chicks and pulled them on his lap. The nigga had a situation, but he still liked to bless females with his presence as often as he could.

  I looked over to see Legion paying more attention to his drink and blunt than the girls around us, even though a few of them were trying to get his pretty faced ass attention. But that was Legion; women were never his focus. He fucked with very few people and kept to himself a lot.

  My eyes then landed on my baby brother, who was too busy smiling into his cell.

  “Who you talking to?” I called out, and he looked at me. “Let me find out you have a girl you didn’t tell me about.”

  He fell out laughing and shook his head. “Nah, big bro, never that! Ain’t no bitch out there that can tame me.”

  When I narrowed my eyes at him, he quickly threw his hands in the air and corrected himself.

  “I meant chick.”

  He knew I didn’t play that bitch word, not since I had my daughter. Before my KeKe was born, everybody and their mama was a bitch, but then I thought about how she would grow up seeing herself if she heard her daddy calling females bitches. So, I stopped. Now they were females, women, or chicks. Plus, even the thought of a little nigga calling my daughter a bitch had me ready to be on some King Herod shit and murder every male born from her generation up!

  I shook my head at the thought.

  Since I had been fucking with someone for the last two months, I just picked up my drink and kicked back as I watched the chicks dancing. My time was limited, so I didn’t overwhelm myself with too many chicks. That was just a sure way of adding more problems, and I had enough of my own.

  My baby mama, Brittany, and I were never in a relationship, even while she was pregnant with my three-year-old daughter. For me, it is what it is. If she wanted to be with me, we would have, but Brittany wasn’t into settling down and shit, and I was okay with that.

  I was the type of nigga who didn’t worry about shit, especially not a chick. If I found her worth it, I would deal with her, which is how I ended up with Renee. She was a short, dark-skinned beauty with a short pixie cut. Lil ma was cute as fuck, and her body was nice. I met her in the club, and we had been fucking with each other ever since.

  “Ayo, Renee is coming.” Surge nudged me, and I looked up and saw that she was coming up the stairs.

  I knew it would only be a matter of time before she turned up because if my brothers and I weren’t working, we were there. So, I expected to see her.

  I took a mouthful of my drink with my eyes fixed on the stairs as I waited to see her appear at the top. When she did, I expected a smile on her face like she always had when seeing me, but instead, there was a frown, which let me know she was going to be on some bullshit.

  I just causally took a pull of my blunt and waited to see what had her so tight. Like I said, shit very rarely bothered me.

  Sensing something was going to pop off, Guns fell out laughing like only he knew how to do, while my other brothers just sat back with a smile on their faces and watched.

  Renee’s frown deepened as she looked around at all the women dancing in our section, and then she stomped over to me. When she reached the table that was directly in front of me, she stopped.

  Her arms folded across her perky titties, she shifted her weight to one leg and started to tap her foot rapidly while glaring down at me.

  Again, I took a pull of my blunt and slowly blew it out.

  “What’s good, Renee?” I said in an unbothered manner.

  I didn’t do all that acting mad. If you had a problem, I expected you to open your fucking mouth and tell me.

  “Wrath, you have some damn explaining to do because you got me fucked up!” She finally grunted, and I just leaned back against the leather sofa and extended my right arm along the back of it.

  “Sis is mad tight.” Guns chuckled.

  “Renee, open your mouth and tell me what’s up or take your ass back down those stairs. I ain’t into playing no game of twenty-one questions, guess who, or no shit like that. You of all people know that shit, so start talking or be on your way.”

  My response caused her mouth to drop, and she embarrassedly looked around at my brothers like she was shocked that I spoke to her like that in front of them. When she looked back at me, my eyes told her that I was dead ass serious too.

  “Fine!” She stomped her foot. “Can you tell me why I just saw your baby mama, and she told me that y’all are still fucking? And that y’all were together only last night?!”

  “Oh shit!” Guns laughed with a fist up to his mouth.

  Lifting my left hand, I rubbed a finger across my bottom lip as I looked at her.

  “Renee, when did I ever tell you that I wasn’t fucking my baby mama?”
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br />   Her eyes damn near popped out of her head, and this time, all my brothers fell out laughing while I sat there with a straight face.

  My question made sense to me because I never ever told this girl that I wasn’t fucking my baby mama, and if she had asked, I would have told her. She just assumed that I wasn’t, and that wasn’t my fault.

  Brittany was my baby mama, and she was always going to be in my life. So, no matter who I was fucking with, I was always going to go back to her. Did I love her? Yeah, because I loved women. So, to me, it was all the same.

  “I didn’t ever promise you anything but my time and some dick, Renee.” And that was the truth.

  She and I were fucking with each other, but she wasn’t my girl.

  I wasn’t going to get into a relationship with anyone knowing I wasn’t going to do right. I would fuck around and murder a chick who cheated on me, so I wasn’t going to do that. For whatever reason, Brittany and I couldn’t be together, but we couldn’t leave each other alone either. And that’s why I didn’t do a relationship.

  “You know what, fuck you Wrath!” Renee barked then turned on her heels and stomped out of our section.

  Shrugging, I picked up my drink and took some.

  “You a savage with it.” Guns laughed, and Surge dapped me up.

  “It is what it is.”

  Dior Alfred

  After downing the last of my coffee, I put the cup down and rushed out of the kitchen while peering down at my watch. If I didn’t leave my apartment now, I was going to be late for work, and I hated to be late.

  I quickly grabbed my purse and keys from the couch then rushed out of my apartment. I locked the door behind me and made my way out of the building for my car.

  As soon as I pushed the door open, I was confronted with commotion.

  There were three squad cars outside, and all my neighbors were out looking around.

  “Get the fuck off me, you pussy ass niggas!” I heard someone holler out, and I looked up to see Taj being hauled away by two officers. His hands were cuffed behind his back, but that didn’t stop him from trying to tug his arms out of their grip.

  Taj was a twenty-two-year-old pest to my local community. Everything illegal, this boy was involved in, and quite frankly, I wasn’t surprised that his ass was getting arrested. If you asked me, it was a long time coming.

  He had no respect for anyone around and had gotten into too many arguments and altercations with most of the residents.

  Taj’s sweats fell to his thighs as he waddled toward the squad car that they were escorting him to. The officers stopped walking, and one pulled his sweats up.

  At that moment, Taj looked right over at me, winked, and licked his lips, causing me to turn my nose up at him.

  From the moment I moved into my apartment in Baisley Park Houses, Jamaica, Queens, almost three years ago, Taj had been trying to shoot his shot. No matter how many times I told him that he didn’t stand a chance, he still tried.

  I wasn’t conceited at all, but I knew that I was a beautiful girl. At 5’7”, I had a slim body with a round ass and small, but perky B cup breasts. My skin was the color of caramel, and I had slanted almond shaped eyes. My hair was jet black, curly, and sat on my shoulders when straightened. Add all that to a small nose, full lips, high cheek bones, and dimples; I knew that I was a pretty girl.

  A lot of guys pushed up on me, but I wasn’t checking for none of these bum ass street niggas, and that included Taj’s stupid ass. Besides, I did have a boyfriend. We had been together for one year, and it was interesting! I say that because he wasn’t someone that I would have picked for myself. James was a handsome man, but he was one of those black men who grew up white! Country clubs and all that shit. We didn’t have a lot in common, and we only met because my mom insisted.

  She wanted me to marry him and have a bunch of kids as a way out of the projects. And surprisingly, he was pressing for it too. He wanted to take care of me, but I didn’t want that. I wanted my own shit that I worked for.

  Any woman could lay on her back, pop a few kids out, and get married to the man, but a real woman worked for the shit she had and then did the other things out of love. Just my opinion.

  Shaking my head at Taj, I proceeded to go on about my business and get my ass to work.

  As I drove to my job at New York Commercial Bank on Queens Blvd, Rego Park, I couldn’t help but think that with Taj gone, the dope boys who dealt with him might move on. Every single night, they were out there causing a disturbance, fighting, and selling dope. There wasn’t a day that went by when I didn’t pray I lived somewhere else, but my average paying job wouldn’t allow that to happen.

  I don’t care what anyone else thought, but I knew that half of the crime and issues that happened on my block were because of the drug dealers, and I hated everything they represented. The crackheads stayed breaking into people’s shit just to steal stuff to sell so they could buy more dope. I just felt like if those niggas weren’t out in the street selling that shit, there would be no crackheads and nobody breaking into people’s homes.

  Drug dealers were destroying our community. That was my opinion, and it wasn’t going to change.

  After a long day at work, I was glad to see the end of the day, and it was even better that it was Friday. Like I did on most Fridays, I went to the grocery store and then headed to my grandmother’s apartment over in Marcy Houses, in Brooklyn.

  Sadly, at the age of twenty-four, I didn’t have any friends except one, Gia, who was my best friend. I didn’t do all that clubbing or anything like that. I don’t know, I was a simple girl and things like that never interested me.

  That’s why I didn’t have many friends because when they wanted to go clubbing or out to meet different men, I would much rather kick back with a book at home for the night or sit and talk to my grandmother. They thought I was weird and bougie, but that was okay with me.

  Gia, although she was more outspoken than I was, we were quite similar with being homebodies. She liked to stay home and binge watch trash TV instead of club hopping. We were just two old girls in young bodies, as my grandmother liked to say. That’s probably why I’ve been friends with Gia’s short, Blasian ass for the past ten years. She was my baby.

  “Big Mama!” I hollered as soon as I opened my grandmother’s door. The smell of my favorite chocolate brownies hit my nostrils, and I smiled.

  “It smells so good in here!” I beamed with a smile on my face when I walked into the kitchen.

  “Hi, baby.” My grandmother greeted me with a big hug and kiss on my cheeks.

  “I bought some groceries for you,” I said, shaking the bag at her, and she shook her head at me.

  “How many times do I need to tell your hard of hearing butt that you don’t need to bring anything for me?”

  My grandmother was always fussing about me bringing things for her whenever I came over, but I couldn’t help it.

  “Blame yourself, Big Mama. Every time you came to my house, you had something for me.” I shrugged as I washed my hands in the kitchen sink.

  My grandmother popped me on the head, and I laughed.

  “That’s what a grandmother does… smart ass.”

  We sat around the kitchen table talking about our week. I made it a habit to come at least twice a month and spend a night with her. My dad, who was her son, made sure to call her every day, but I knew that she got lonely outside of that, so I made sure she saw my face.

  Before long, I was the last one standing in the kitchen. Big Mama tried to hang, but she couldn’t.

  I cleaned the kitchen and retired to the room I used when I stayed over.

  By this time, my ass was tired and ready to sleep. I stripped out of my clothes and took a quick shower. After I was done, I sent a text to my mom to let her know that I was with my grandmother and would see them tomorrow.

  And as soon as I turned the lamp off and laid my head on the pillow, I was out… for two damn minutes. I popped my eyes open with a frown
on my face when I heard loud ass music blasting from outside.

  “Yeah, yeah, nigga! You wilding! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!” a loud ass voice boomed out, and I sucked my teeth.

  “Keep calm, Dior. They gon’ move on any minute now,” I told myself as I tried to keep from doing something about it.

  However, after two minutes passed and they were still out there making noise, all rational thought left my mind. I pushed the cover off my body and jumped out of the bed.

  “WILL Y’ALL SHUT THE HELL UP!!!!” I climbed onto the window pane, stuck my head out of the window, and yelled at the group of men who were outside the building making as much noise as they could.

  I was stunned when some of them looked up at me and then went right back to making noise like they didn’t even hear me.

  “HELLLOOOO!!!” I yelled trying to get their attention again. However, this time, they didn’t even bother to look up at me.

  Anger rose inside me. Usually, I would have let it go, but not tonight.

  “I’m so sick of those niggas. Every time I come here they out there on this bullshit!” I angrily snapped and grind on my back teeth.

  Grabbing my robe, I slid it over my body, pushed my feet into my house shoes, and stormed out of the apartment to give those niggas a piece of my mind!

  Jashawn ‘Surge’ Ramsey

  “A’ight, so boom, I’m at this chick’s crib, and she’s kissing on me, feeling on me, this, that and the third. So, we get down to it, and word to my mom, that bitch’s pussy was like a black hole.”

  “Nigga, shut the fuck up with your goofy ass!” I bellowed and laughed my ass off. Sly was talking the most shit as usual.

  “I’m dead ass serious, Surge! That bitch, Diane’s, pussy was so slack I almost fell into that shit!” Sly responded, and I shook my head while laughing at him.