Pitbulls In a Skirt 5 Page 5

  Grace looked at the dog food bags on the floor in the kitchen and was almost certain there were drugs inside. The plan was to take the drugs out and to Heavy’s apartment hoping to lure him out with a phone call.

  “You will once I lay this pussy on you again.” She playfully punched his face softly. “I’m vicious with my game. And by the smile on your face right now I know you agree.”

  He chuckled but his expression turned serious. “I’m not fucking around, Grace. I been trying to get inside this box for weeks and you been crying Heavy’s name hard. Even said if I was the last man in DC and looked like Idris Elba you still wouldn’t fuck a nigga. What changed?”

  She sighed and rolled her eyes. “You too smart for your own good you know? I hate when niggas talk themselves out of the pussy instead of going with the flow.” She rolled her eyes. “Just enjoy yourself for now.”

  She moved to kiss him again and he put his hand in her face.

  She frowned.

  “First off I already got the pussy.” He shrugged. “And being too smart comes with the territory. Now…I’m still waiting on you to answer the question.”

  “Let’s just say I’m using you in my own way.” She smiled and ran her hand down the side of his face. When Heavy got irritated in the past she used the move to calm him down but it didn’t seem to be working with Quinton. “Our time together has been a lot of fun too. And will continue to be fun if you go with the flow.”

  He frowned. “Fuck you mean you’re using me? And to go with the flow?” He lifted her off his waist and sat up. “I’m about to smack the shit out you.”

  She perched next to him. “You look upset.”

  “I am…and in a minute I’m about to punch you in the fucking face. Square in the nose.”

  Grace stood up, slipped into her dress and bra. Her breasts still stood at attention so the undergarment was a nuisance more than a help. “I meant just what I said, Quinton. I have a purpose and I needed your assistance. You’ve done that and I would say thank you except I don’t think it would matter to you. Let’s just drop it and chill out for a little while.”

  Embarrassed he stood up and approached her. “I want you out of here right now, bitch.” He paused. “I’m not fucking around. I should’ve known you were weird. What kind of slut wears a summer dress in a winter storm?” He pointed at her nose. “And if I see you in Marjorie after this I might lay you down for the disrespect.” Suddenly letting her in the Trap seemed like a bad idea and he wanted her gone, Rambler too since he was making a list.

  Grace laughed totally unmoved by his anger. “You see, I’m not gonna be able to do that. In fact I’m gonna need ‘you’ to leave.” She looked back at Rambler who was sitting on the sofa silent observing the awkward scene. “And you can take your friend too.”

  His eyes widened and his mouth opened and closed before opening again. “You got five minutes to—”

  Grace raised his gun and shot him in the forehead, quieting him for eternity. He didn’t know she lifted it off of him during sex and now it was too late. Afraid, Rambler pushed Kliyo’s head out of her lap and rushed over to her friend. “What the fuck is wrong with you? Why did you just shoot him?”

  Kliyo rubbed his tired eyes and gasped when he saw Quinton on the floor trying to suck air into his lungs. “What is happening?” He asked her. “What the fuck!”

  Grace smiled at Kliyo’s anxiety before looking at her friend. “Heavy called earlier and threatened me. A little later this cell phone was ringing off the hook. He already know we in here before we could move the package.” She snatched it off the floor, where she and Quinton lay earlier. “When I was fucking Quinton and asked who was calling he said the Plug and that he would call her back later. It’s time to escalate my plan.”

  Rambler rubbed her throbbing temples before sliding on Kliyo’s shirt. It was the quickest thing she could use to cover her body and Kliyo was too concerned with his friend to care at the moment.

  “You not making sense and you never said anything about murder, Grace.” Rambler’s heart thumped in her chest as she ran her hand frantically through her short golden hair. “You’re all over the place. That’s not our area of expertise.”

  “I did what I had to,” Grace shrugged. “For now just relax and let me figure things out. So we can make it out of here alive.”

  Kliyo, realizing his friend was gone rose off the floor and made a move for Grace. “Bitch, are you fucking—”

  Kliyo’s words were cut short when Grace aimed at him. “If you think I’m gonna let you talk to me any kind of way you crazy. Now I didn’t want to kill your friend but he was about to toss me out and I can’t have that right now.”

  Kliyo raised his hands as his eyes widened. “Okay, okay…can you at least tell me what the fuck is going on?” He looked around for his gun and didn’t see it. “Are you robbing us or something?”

  “I’m doing whatever I want. And don’t worry about looking for your weapon, baby boy, I hid that too.” Grace said. “And I’ll tell you what’s going on. I’m gonna hang out here for a little while and if you get in the way of my plans you’ll be reunited with your friend sooner than you realize.” She lowered her gun. “In spirit of course.”

  There was a firm knock at the door.

  Grace aimed at him again. “Who the fuck is that?”

  “I don’t know.” His eyes widened as he saw his life flash before him as he considered it being Yvette. “Fuck! Stop pointing that thing at me.”

  Grace frowned. “Watch his ass,” she said to Rambler as she backed up, gun still trained on him. Once at the door she looked out of the peephole. She sighed and lowered the weapon when she saw her cousin on the other side. Along with his two friends. “Fuck you want, Wilson?” She said to the door. “Go home!”

  “Bitch, open the fucking door,” he yelled. “We done walked over here from the next building and I’m freezing. Jeans wet and everything.”

  She tucked her gun in between her titties, opened the door and crossed her arms over her chest. Wilson, Corey and Spotter pushed their way inside as if they had rights. Removing their heavy wet coats and tossing them to the floor.

  “I hear you were having a party,” Wilson said locking the door before rubbing his palms together and licking his lips. “I decided to check it out. I hope you don’t mind.”

  Grace rolled her eyes. “So instead of coming to see about me himself Heavy sends you. That’s mighty weak on his part don’t you think?”

  “I don’t know ‘bout all of that,” Wilson shrugged. “What I wanna know is why you in the Trap?” And then he saw the half naked corpse on the floor. His eyes widened and he covered his mouth with his cold palm. “Please tell me you didn’t just do this shit.” He pointed at Quinton’s body. “Are you crazy?”

  “So you want me to lie?”

  Wilson relieved her of her weapon and slapped her so hard he temporarily blinded her on the right side of her face. “I just got in good with them bitches!” He pointed at her using the barrel. “Do you know how long it took me to get on the squad? And what you do? Fuck your way in and kill one of their soldiers. How you think shit gonna pan out for me? For our family?”

  “I didn’t ask you to come over here!” Grace yelled holding her throbbing cheek. “Blame Heavy!”

  “Had I known you were committing murder I would’ve told him to fuck off. Now just like somebody saw you two bitches coming in, they may have saw us too.” He tucked her gun in the back of his jeans with the rest of the weapons. “I hate to admit it but I’m in this now.”

  “Nigga, we need to leave back out of that door and act like we didn’t see any of this shit!” Spotter said grabbing his coat and Wilson’s. “Let’s roll.” He shoved Wilson’s damp coat into his chest.

  Wilson snatched his jacket and tossed it back on the floor. “We lost any other option the moment we came in here, man.”

  “Plus I’m not leaving empty handed, Spotter,” Corey said as he looked at Grace from the co
rner of his eyes. “Wilson’s right.”

  All Kliyo and Rambler could do is watch as their lives unfolded before their eyes.

  “Exactly, now slide that nigga in the room,” he told his men. “I have to figure our next move out.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  MERCEDES

  “This feels off.”

  Yvette stood in the middle of the floor with her cell phone on speaker. We were on our way to the Trap to investigate the girls when Kliyo called and Yvette dug into him. “Nobody’s in here, ‘Vette,” Kliyo said. “I promise. Whoever told you that shit is straight lying.”

  “That’s not what I’m hearing.” She paced in place. “I heard two bitches walked in the spot ‘bout a hour ago, Kliyo. I thought I was clear on no whores being in the trap.”

  “On everything, ‘Vette, nobody’s here.” He continued. “If you want to come by you can but I’m being honest. It’s just me and Quinton. We ain’t opened the door since we been on duty.”

  “First off I know I can come by and I will.” She glared. “And if I find out you lying to me, Kliyo. You gonna have a painful night.” Yvette hung up.

  “I don’t know about this, Yvette,” I said as I held Ryan who was moving around nervously in my arm. “This feels off.”

  “I agree with Mercedes,” Heavy said. “Maybe you should fall back for a second. If you want I can go check things out.”

  Yvette frowned. “You never been involved in my business so you won’t start now.” She ran her hand down her face. “Listen, I just got my business back on. I’m not about to lose it all on some dumb shit. Right now I have to think things through. Just give me some time” She walked away.

  I walked into the hall bathroom where Yvette stood washing her hands. We had bathrooms in our bedrooms so I thought that was odd.

  “Why aren’t you in your room?”

  “I needed to throw some water over my face real quick.”

  I leaned against the doorframe. “Are you thinking what I am?” I asked as I watched her run a clean wet washcloth over her face.

  She took a deep breath. “I’m thinking a lot of things, Mercedes. Be more specific and help me out.”

  “You don’t think they could be tied up into this in some way do you?”

  She took a deep breath, turned around to look at me. “Karen and Oscar led a sheltered life in the Black Water Klan. They stayed amongst themselves. Plus we swept Marjorie before taking it over. Nobody here was affiliated.”

  “Then what is this about?” I asked in a hushed tone. “I’m so sick of being hunted and having to look over my shoulder. This can’t be how life really is. Do you realize it’s been years since I’ve had a good nights sleep.”

  She laughed. “I’m not having them now.”

  “I’m serious!”

  She looked up at me. “Mercedes, I’ll take care of this, I always do. Just give me some time to sort all of this out.” She walked around me and out the door.

  I was trying to put Ryan to sleep who was agitated by the noise and negative energy when Rocky walked inside the room. I looked back at her and grabbed the gun on the bed before aiming at her head. “Fuck you doing in here? You don’t just come in my room.”

  Rocky threw her hands up. “I’m sorry. Didn’t mean to intrude. I was coming from the bathroom and it looked like you needed help.” She swallowed. “I can leave if—”

  I know the girl was no threat since they were checked for weapons earlier so I placed my gun down where I could grab it if necessary. “No, you can come in,” I said cutting her off. “Maybe a face that doesn’t get on his nerves will calm him down.”

  Rocky smiled, walked inside and sat on the edge of the bed. She looked over at Ryan who was still fussing, picked him up and placed him on her lap. Then she slowly massaged his temples in small circular motions.

  Ryan wiggled for a few seconds and went silent.

  I smiled. “Wow…I…it worked...” I took a deep breath since his screeching voice stopped. It always put me on edge when he was in a bad mood. “Usually I can get him to settle down but today he seems different.”

  “He probably senses something’s wrong. Babies have a sixth sense.” She looked down at Ryan and back at me. “I’m sure he does know something is off. There’s a lot going on in Marjorie apparently.”

  “I heard that too.” I focused on the technique she was using for future references. “I really can’t believe that’s working.”

  “My grandmother use to do this to me all the time. And to all of her grandchildren and her great-grandchildren too. Even when we were older she’d do it if we had a headache and it always made it go away.”

  I sighed. “Well tell her I said thank you when you see her again.”

  Rocky’s disposition saddened as her shoulders hunched forward. “I would if her young boyfriend didn’t kill her when she stopped giving him money two years back.” She sighed. “And since my mother died three years before her murder, with liver cancer, we never recovered. I’m the only one who uses this technique on people.”

  Wow. I wish I hadn’t said anything about her grandmother.

  “I’m sorry to hear about your family,” I said as I watched Ryan drift into a deep sleep. “Can’t imagine what—”

  “Fuck you doing back here?” 88 asked Rocky, causing Ryan’s eyes to fly open before he started crying again. To make shit more intense he had his weapon trained on her. That might not have been so bad if she wasn’t holding my blood relative.

  “She’s fine,” I said turning toward him, placing my hands on his muscular chest, which moved up and down with heavy breaths. “Now put that shit away, you scaring Ryan!”

  88’s eyes remained on Rocky although he tucked his weapon in the back of his jeans. Finally he looked down at me and stomped out the room.

  “I’m sorry,” Rocky said massaging Ryan’s temples again, putting him at ease. “You want me to leave? I would go home but Yvette said she wanted us to stay here to keep an eye on us.”

  “No…stay with him. I’ll go talk to 88.”

  I rushed out of the room.

  88 seemed draped in total whiteness as he paced the balcony, which was dusted lightly with snow due to being partially covered. I walked out to greet him with his jacket in my hand. The snow making scrunching noises under my fresh Timberland boots.

  I was already wearing my chocolate fur coat to battle the brisk weather.

  Closing the door I handed it to him and looked back into the apartment to be sure no one was watching us. When I didn’t see anyone I took a deep breath. “Now you know why I said we should’ve never started with each other.”

  “Hold up, you mad at me?” He pointed at his chest. “She wasn’t supposed to even be back there. She said she had to go to the bathroom and the next thing I know she’s sitting on your bed. Can’t you see that girl is gay, Mercedes?” He put his coat on angrily. “You do have eyes don’t you?”

  I laughed and held my stomach. “And what the fuck does her being gay have to do with me?” I frowned. “You know I don’t go that way and never will. You need to relax.” I paused and looked into the apartment again to be sure we weren’t being watched. “Now what’s this really about?”

  “I’m sick of competing, Mercedes!” He walked a few feet away from me before approaching me again. “First Jackson and now this bitch.” He pointed into the apartment. “It seems like everybody can get a piece of your time but me.”

  I looked into our crib and up at him again. “You’re coming undone and you need to keep your fucking voice down, 88. If they find out we been sliding off it may get back to C.” I moved closer so that he could see my eyes. “And trust me…neither one of us wants that to happen. He’ll never approve us being together. You know that.”

  “I’m in love with you, Mercedes. Do you understand what I’m saying? I’m in love. And I’m sick of sneaking around, fucking you in your Bentley and public parks like you a whore.”

  I smiled hoping to lighten the mood. “I
thought you liked having sex that way, said you appreciated the excitement. Said it was refreshing to be with a boss who knew what she wanted.” He was glaring and I could tell he wasn’t there for my seduction game so I took a deep breath and changed my approach. “Come on, 88…you knew I had a man before we started. Why you changing now?”

  He walked a few feet away from me and grabbed the sides of his head before dropping his hands at his sides. “You have to decide what you want, Mercedes. And you gotta decide now.” He pointed at the snow-covered balcony floor.

  “What’s there to decide? Outside of Jackson and me living together I haven’t let him touch me in months. I’m not that kind of woman and I want you! I told you that already.”

  “I’m not talking about fucking you. I’m talking about us making it official. Either you’re willing to be my woman or I’m done with all the games. Do you want that?”

  What was it about me being attracted to men I was in charge of? First Derrick and now 88. Maybe I feel safer if I held their financial power in my hands. When I was with Cameron he owned me before we took over Emerald. I didn’t want to be vulnerable again.

  I walked up to him. “Come on, 88, don’t do this to me. If you walk out I have nothing else. You are my excitement…don’t take that away from me right now.”

  He pushed me away softly. “Are you not hearing me? I got feelings for you and I’m getting the impression that we’ll never move forward. Either you want me or you don’t. I told you how I feel. It’s your choice not mine.” He stormed off the balcony, leaving me alone.

  From where I stood I could see Heavy leaving and I wondered where he was going. 88 walked over to Fresh who stood next to the door and they seemed to be talking about Heavy’s quick exit.

  I didn’t see Yvette so I figured she was still trying to decide what to do. Should we go to the Trap house or not to investigate this whore situation? Personally I was apprehensive because even though we knew a lot of people in this building there were many more we didn’t know.