Pitbulls In a Skirt 5 Page 2

“We have beautiful homes in the suburbs. But because you had one of the largest shipments delivered this year we have to be snowed in together here. We don’t even hang out anymore. Now we’re forced to

  spend hours together on some business shit? Of course we want to kill each other.” She paused. “And only God knows what Treasure and Chante doing at my house right now.”

  “First off I never told you to let Treasure and Chante stay in the house while we accepted the delivery. You had Melinda’s number and could’ve called her to watch them. Plus it’s not like they aren’t old enough to look out for each other anyway.”

  “Stop fucking complaining, Carissa,” Mercedes said. “That’s all you do is complain.”

  “Complaining?” Carissa said with her jaw hung. “We have over 30 kilos of cocaine in this building. If the FEDS planned a raid after they plow we locked up for life.”

  “I know that!” I yelled. “Why you think I had it posted up at another spot in the building instead of here?” I asked. “I’m not dumb.”

  “Like that’s gonna work. If the FEDS come who you think they gonna believe the weight belongs to?” Carissa continued. “Quentin and Kliyo young asses or the three kingpins on the 8th floor who they been watching for years?”

  “Then what you want me to do? Lil C getting held up at the airport and the snowstorm meant we had to be here.”

  “Let’s keep it basic because I know what this is really about,” Carissa said to me. “And why you so calm and unconcerned.”

  I frowned. “And what’s that?”

  “As long as you got Heavy you good with being here. I wouldn’t be surprised if things hit the fan, you chose him over us too.”

  “Yeah, Carissa talking some real shit now,” Mercedes added. “Because of this shit I can’t see Jackson until they dig us out. Which may be forever.”

  I laughed sarcastically. “I’m not about to argue with either of you about the decision we made together. We’re here now so we can either deal with it or not. I wasn’t mad at first but the way I’m feeling right now I wouldn‘t care if either of you bitches killed yourselves.” I stormed off.

  CHAPTER TWO

  GRACE

  “I’m begging you not to leave me. But if I can’t stop you, I’ll stop her.”

  The open windows cooled down the tiny bedroom as Grace Johnson did her best to fight for her relationship.

  Sadly it wasn’t working.

  “Can you at least tell me again why you’re breaking up with me?” Grace pleaded as she watched Heavy pack his clothing in a rushed fashion. Her light brown box braids hung over her shoulders and clung to her skin due to her sweating so much. “You act like you don’t even know me.”

  “Why you keep asking the same shit?” Heavy tossed a white t-shirt over his right shoulder. He was placing his neatly folded clothing into a black leather duffle bag preparing to make his escape from her. Standing 6’3 he was a big dude with a facial expression that would scare those who didn’t know him. “This ain’t no game.” His nostrils opened

  and closed with each breath. “Start recording the shit I say to you, maybe then you’ll remember.”

  Grace paced the floor a few times, clutched her hands in front of her and took a deep breath. “I’m not trying to make you upset. All I want to know is if you still love me?”

  “Grace, if you think what you see in my eyes right now is love then you still on them pills.” He paused. “I don’t love you anymore and you already know it.”

  “Heavy, we—”

  “You think I don’t know what you doing tonight?” He yelled, causing her to blink with each word. “You think I don’t know you came over during the snow storm hoping to get snowed in with me, so you could fuck shit up with my shawty? You not smarter than me, Grace. Never have been and never will be.”

  Her lips tightened and her expression was weighty with guilt. “That’s not true. I came over to get the rest of my clothes.”

  He laughed. “You mean those two hooker dresses you have in my closet?” He rushed over to it, grabbed a red dress and a tiger striped one off hangers and threw them in her face.

  “You didn’t have to do that!” She tossed them to the floor. “Anyway I came for Megan’s stuff too. My mother wants them.”

  “For what? Her fat ass can’t even fit into the clothes she wearing now so what she gonna do with children’s clothing?” He took a deep breath. “Our daughter is dead. Remember? You left that window open and she fell out eight months ago.” He pointed over her right shoulder, his forearm brushing against the side of her face.

  Although he was angry her pussy tingled because it was the first time he touched her since the funeral. And he only laid hands on her that moment with a hug, doing his best to erase some of the grief from losing their child. Even before their daughter’s death they hadn’t been sexual with each other in five months prior because he was done with her conniving ways.

  Her name may have meant goodwill but she was anything but. If the truth glistened the more she didn’t get her way after asking the deadlier she got.

  They both knew it.

  Grace would never give him up without a fight. Eugene ‘Heavy’ Carter was the only man she’d ever loved in her 25-year-old life. Losing him didn’t only mean her relationship was over, it meant the end of the world, as she knew it. She wouldn’t call it quits until she pulled every dirty trick from her bag the streets taught her.

  “You must feel real strong, standing in front of me and telling me I’m responsible for killing my own child. You have no emotions at all for me do you?”

  “You did kill her, Grace. You and I both know it and because of it I will never forgive you.”

  She stumbled backward against the open window like a boxer coming in on the losing in of a punch in a title bout. “That’s not true! I said stop saying that to me!”

  He shook his head. “Deliberately or not, had you been watching her my only child would be alive today.” He zippered the duffle and lifted it off the bed. “Like I said…I don’t love you no more, Grace. And I’m not about to fuck up my new relationship because you can’t get that through your brain.”

  “It’s because of her money isn’t it?”

  “Grace—”

  “I won’t let her have you.” Her forehead crinkled causing her to look twice her young age. “I won’t let you walk around Marjorie, knowing you belonged to me. Making people laugh at me or worse, feel sorry for me.” She stepped closer, her breasts brushing at his abdomen because he was so tall. “But if you choose to go that route I will wreak more havoc than you can imagine, Heavy. Even more than you think I am capable of. When it comes down to it, you really don’t know me.”

  “Are you threatening me?” He asked while squaring his large frame directly in front of her and peering down into her eyes.

  “No…I’m begging you not to leave me. But if I can’t stop you, I’ll stop her.” She exhaled, looked down at her hands and back up at him. He was so gigantic it seemed as if her eyes would never reach his but when they did she frowned. “When you were last inside of my pussy you said I belonged to you. And I took those words very seriously.”

  Heavy took a deep breath and tried to compose himself. It wasn’t because he was fearful. One swipe of his hand and he could have her in the hospital for weeks. Body to body she was no match for him but he underestimated the stamina of a woman in love and obsessed.

  “It’s over. I don’t know another language to say it in. Let yourself out.” He looked at her once more and walked around her.

  But Grace didn’t leave the building. Instead she stood in their old bedroom and tried desperately to inhale the scent of his expensive cologne. She had to resort to those types of things in order to grasp any reminders of how things use to be when they were together.

  When they were in love.

  When his scent faded away, finally she stumbled through the door and into the living room where her friends Rambler and Kitty were sitting on the sofa
waiting for the verdict.

  Did she win him back or nah?

  Was there hope for them, who also had been dumped by their dudes?

  When Grace first extended the invitation to her friends it seemed like a great idea. She would bring them along in the event that Yvette, Mercedes and Carissa were in the apartment. She figured together the six of them would fight but things didn’t go as planned and now their presence acted as an additional reminder that Heavy was gone.

  Possibly forever.

  “So it didn’t work?” Rambler asked sliding the red Chicago Bulls cap further down over her bleached blonde curly hair. “So you telling me we got stuck over here for nothing? Without a nigga or dick?”

  Kitty scratched her thick brown thigh and leaned back. “Mannnn, I was looking forward to stomping some drug boss asses.” She cracked her knuckles for effect even though they hurt.

  Grace’s shoulders hunched forward. She was short, standing 5’4 and that’s if you gave her credit for her thick soled sneakers. But she was also the loudest, the strongest and the most deadly of her friends. Which was why they hated seeing her in such dire straits.

  “He really leaving me,” Grace said trying not to have a hard cry. “He blaming me for our daughter and everything.”

  Rambler and Kitty looked at one another and shook their heads.

  “That fat bastard,” Rambler said.

  “Easy,” Grace warned. “He’s still my nigga.”

  “Well what you wanna do about that?” Kitty asked.

  “Because I know one thing…we can’t let him get away with treating you like this.” Rambler, who was always ready for drama said. “And you know I can’t stand them bitches anyway. They think just cause they got money they better than the rest of us in Marjorie.”

  Grace nodded in acknowledgment and looked around the brown torn carpet hoping to come up with an idea worthy of her heavy heart.

  “I don’t know the major plan but might I suggest getting high in the mean time?” Kitty asked. “I brought some smoke.”

  “Bitch, don’t be stupid,” Rambler said. “We dealing with something else right now. Grace might have lost her nigga for good.”

  They both looked at her, hoping she’d given them the slightest direction no matter how dangerous. “Yvette took something from me…so let’s take something from her. I’ll start with her peace of mind.”

  “Sounds like it’s about to be one crazy night,” Rambler grinned. “Let’s get to it.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  MERCEDES

  “You should’ve asked before you sent two niggas over my house!”

  From where I sat I could still see the snow falling from the sky, in a heavy powder that was doing its best to keep us here even longer. “I’m fine,” I said to Lil C as I sat on the sofa sipping a cup of hot ginger tea. We were talking on the phone. “You act like I’m a newbie at this and I wish you’d stop worrying.”

  He sighed. “I know you ‘bout the game, ma but you weak right now. The worst thing that could’ve happened was the window break in Marjorie. We haven’t run shit forever there. It’s not like Emerald City.” Window Break was code word for early dope delivery.

  “But nobody knows about the window break.”

  “Niggas ain’t stupid, ma. All three of the bosses are in Marjorie at the same time? Come on now. Even if they not sure they gonna try their hands, especially with me being out of town. And it won’t make no never mind that ya’ll are bosses either, ma.” He paused. “Not only that, but Kliyo and Quentin never been responsible for this much work. Don’t get me wrong, up until this point they been good but money has a tendency to show you what’s really pumping through a nigga’s veins. Loyalty or greed. “And I don’t—”

  “Lil C—”

  “Cameron, ma.” He interrupted. “I’m not Lil C no more I keep telling you that. And I know you never got over the beef with dad but I appreciate being called by my given name. I had to punch a nigga in the mouth the other day for calling me Lil C, thinking the shit was comical because you keep saying it ‘round the way.”

  I sighed because he was right. He definitely had grown up over the years still, it’s hard not to call him by the name that reminded myself and even him that his father, the only man I loved deeply, was gone.

  By my hands at that.

  “You right…Cameron. But I’m fine at Marjorie.”

  “And since I got everything to do with it you gonna stay that way too,” he said. “So how’s your grandson?”

  I frowned. “Wait, you calling me as if I wouldn’t give up breath and life for this little boy?” I held on to the diamond cross on my neck, caressing my thumb over it.

  “What part of my words got you coming at me that way?” He paused. “I was just asking how my son was that’s all. Don’t be mad at me because I checked you on that Lil C shit.”

  I laughed. “I’m not tripping off of that,” I lied. “I just wanted to remind you that I’m still the woman who raised you and Chante alone. That means Ryan is always good with me.”

  “But dad was around too. May not have been in the way you wanted but he was always there. I know niggas that couldn’t recognize their pops’ face if they stole them. I remember mine.”

  “As long as you don’t forget who was full time in your life. Because it wasn’t your Dad that’s for sure.”

  He exhaled. “I ain’t call you to argue, or weigh who was the best parent. I just wanted you to know that I’m not a fan of my mother being snowed in with that thing.” He paused, talking about the drug shipment. “But I love you all the same.”

  Expecting him to come at me another way I was caught off guard. Suddenly all of the tension I felt was released like air from a balloon being poked by a pin. “That was sweet.”

  “That was true,” he said seriously. “I might give these birds a hard time out here but when it comes to you I’m solid. You’ll forever have my heart, ma.”

  I smiled. “I love you too, son.”

  “Good, so you can understand what I’m about to do next.”

  Click.

  I frowned. “Cameron?” I looked at my cell phone but it was obvious he was gone. “Lil C! Where you go?” I called his name several times but received no answer. It was obvious he hung up leaving me with many unanswered questions.

  What had he done?

  And more than it all, how would it impact me?

  I watched as Heavy stood in front of a black cast iron pan full of hot frying chicken. Yvette was at his side and was seasoning a second batch. I was happy for her to have the type of love that I wanted with Jackson even if I was skeptical if their new bond was real.

  And as far as me, my heart was somewhere else at the time.

  Anyway, Jackson and Heavy were two different men.

  Jackson was more easy going, wanting nothing more than to be the perfect man for me, whatever that meant. Heavy’s personality was darker and he was more controlling. Now that I think about it I wonder if we didn’t gravitate to the same kind of men who first broke our hearts…Cameron and Thick.

  Considering how we ended up killing them both I can’t help but wonder if fate wouldn’t deal us similar hands.

  Could we murder our men again if necessary?

  Don’t even get me started with Derrick.

  It’s amazing after all of these years Yvette was mostly the same with the exception of one thing. She got prettier. Along with the money she earned and the power she possessed, she quickly became one of the most wanted women in Marjorie Gardens, just like she had in Emerald.

  We were all desired but she got far more looks than she realized.

  Still a shorty with big titties and a round ass her baby phat faded away and introduced her curves. I smiled as the light from the open window kissed her smooth amber complexion. And the scar she created when she used a knife to slice across her face, moments before killing Thick.

  At 5’5 inches, she was still the meanest bitch you could ever come across. And I got t
he impression she could do the dope gave forever.

  Wish I could say the same.

  I was just about to steal a wing when there was a knock at the front door. Yvette and Heavy turned around to look at me as Carissa crawled out of the bedroom door to go answer it with an attitude as usual. Looking out the peephole she asked, “Who is it?”

  “Fresh,” a deep voice I recognized called out from the other side. “And 88.”

  Carissa looked at me and frowned. “Why they here?”

  I exhaled and shook my head. Lil C overstepped majorly. “I know why…open the door.” I crossed my arms over my chest.

  “Bitch, before I do that tell me why they here,” Carissa continued. “We have to be careful around here.”

  I took a deep breath. “Lil C sent them.”

  “Lil C, I mean Cameron, what are you doing sending them here?” I asked in a hushed tone as I stood in the corner. I was talking to him on the phone. From where I was posted I saw the expression on Yvette and Carissa’s faces and neither of them appreciated the new security. We didn’t like people watching over us this way. “I am a grown woman and you should’ve asked before you sent two niggas over my house.”

  “It ain’t your house, although its fly, it’s just an apartment ya’ll have to crash at in the Gardens. You live in the burbs remember?” He paused. “That’s what I’m saying…you been there too long and I need somebody to keep eyes on you and my aunts while I’m not there. So they not moving.”

  “Cameron, I’m serious! I’m not a child.”

  “Ma, it’s not about that. You think I sent them niggas to watch ya’ll because I don’t think you an adult? I sent them because you my mother and ya’ll being snowed in with no way out got me feeling uncomfortable. I’m not there to protect you so I sent two dudes I know are loyal to me from Marjorie.”

  “But, Cam—”

  “Ma, I love you and I mean no disrespect but they staying.” He sighed. “And I gotta go. I’m trying to see when the next flight gonna take off so I can be on it and back to DC, but it don’t look good. I’ll talk to you soon.”