A Gangsta Twist Saga (48 page)

The next morning when Taz climbed out of bed, he noticed that Sacha had already left for work. He smiled as he thought about her and how freaky she had been during their lovemaking.
That girl be trying to put it on a nigga,
he thought as he went downstairs to get himself something to drink.

As he sipped on some orange juice, he decided to give 'Neema a call and do as Won suggested. He grabbed the cordless phone off the kitchen counter and dialed his daughter's number. When Tazneema answered the phone, he said, “Hey, baby girl. What you up to?”

“Nothing. Just getting ready to go back to school. It feels so strange since I've been out for so long. I have a lot of catching up to do.”

“Yeah, I bet you do. You'll be all right though. Look, 'Neema, I'm not goin' to play any games with you. I hate that nigga Cliff. I hate the fact that you fell in love with him also. I hate it even more that you're goin' to have a child by him. But all of the hate I have is nothing compared to the love I have for you, baby girl. I could never intentionally cause you any pain. It took for me to bury Bo-Pete to realize that this shit is just not worth it. Please understand that I'm not changing the way I feel about him, 'cause that will never change, because whether you believe it or not, he did have something to do with the death of you Uncle.”

“Taz—”

“No, wait, 'Neema. Let me finish. Like I was sayin', the love I have for you is stronger than any hateful feelings I have for Cliff. Keep him away from me and my home. He's not welcome. Do that, and I promise you that I'll never do him nothin'.”

“What about the others? How do they feel?”

“We all love you, and we've all come to this conclusion last night,” he lied. “You mean the world to us, and we don't want to cause you any pain. Plus, Keno said he feared for his life 'cause you was wolfin' some high-powered gangsta shit!”

Tazneema laughed as tears of joy and relief slid down her face. “I love you, Daddy! Thank you! Thank you so very much!”

“I love you too, baby girl. Now, gon' and finish gettin' ready for school. If you need anything, give me a holla.”

“I will,” she said, and hung up the phone feeling real good inside.

After Taz hung up the phone, he smiled because he knew that Won would be proud of how he just rocked his daughter to sleep with his manipulation. Because there was no way in hell that nigga Cliff would still be breathing by the end of the summer.
After me and Sacha do our wedding thang, that nigga is good as dead,
he thought to himself as he downed the rest of his orange juice.

 

 

Keno slapped Katrina on her thick behind and said, “Girl, you better get your ass up! You're goin' to be late for work.”

She rolled to the other side of Keno's California king-sized bed and said, “Come on, boo. Let me sleep a li'l longer, 'kay?”

Keno laughed and said, “For real, for real, I don't give a damn if you never went to work again. It ain't like you need the money. Fuckin' with me, you straight.”

His statement made her open her eyes. She turned and faced him and asked, “What does that mean, Keno? You trying to take care of me or something?”

“Yeah, it's time for a nigga to settle down and start a family and shit. You with somethin' like that?”

Katrina smiled and happily asked, “Are you trying to wife me, Keno?”

He returned her smile and said, “Do you wanna be wifey?”

She frowned and said, “You can't answer a question with one, Keno!”

“Yes, I'm tryin' to wife you. Will you marry me, Katrina?”

“Yes! Yes!
Yes!
” She screamed as she rolled into his arms and kissed him passionately. “I love you, Keno! I love you so much!”

Keno didn't know how much he had actually cared about Katrina until that very moment, because he said the three words he never thought he would ever tell a woman. “Yeah,
mami
, I love you too. So, you gon' quit your job and shit now?”

She pulled from his embrace and said, “Uh-uh. I'm going to finish school and keep on working. What I look like, just living off my man? I'm gon' bring something to the table too. I'm a
real
woman, Keno. Not some leech.”

Keno laughed and said, “
Mami
, if I thought you were anything less than a real woman, you would have never gotten as close to me as you have. My wifey don't have to do no work if she don't want to. I'm in a position to make sure that your every dream can come true. Your every want and desire can and will be fulfilled. All you have to do is tell me what you want,
mami
. Real talk.”

Staring deeply into Keno's brown eyes, Katrina said, “I believe you, baby, but all I want from you is your love and devotion.”

“You got that,
mami
.”

“What about the game, Keno? Are you going to stop hustling ?”

Keno laughed and said, “Hustling? What makes you think I'm a hustler?”

“Come on, baby, don't play me like that. Look at all of this,” she said as she waved her arms around Keno's bedroom. “This big-ass mini-mansion you're living in, the fat Range Rover, the six hundred and all of them expensive low riders that you have in your garage, not to mention all of the expensive jewelry and stuff. I'm not lame to the game, baby. I just want you to be smart enough to get out while you're way ahead of it, that's all. I don't want to become your wife just to lose you one day to jail, or like Bo—well . . . you know what I'm saying.”

Keno pulled her toward him and said, “Listen to me,
mami
. I'm not goin' to nobody's jail, and I don't plan on leaving this earth anytime soon. You don't ever have to worry yourself about none of that craziness. I'm here for as long as you want me to be. As for the hustling, that shit is funny. I don't get down like that. I'm a legit businessman. I have more shit than I can even begin to explain.” He jumped off the bed and stepped quickly toward his dresser. He opened one of the drawers, pulled out a black bankbook, went back to the bed and handed it to Katrina and said, “Look at this,
mami
, and tell me if you think a hustler could do it this big.”

Her eyes damn near popped out of their sockets when she saw the seven figures inside of Keno's bank account. She was speechless as she saw how much money he earned yearly.

“You see,
mami
, I ain't no damn hustler. Everybody out there thinks we're dope boys or some shit like that. They're so far off that it's crazy, and that's exactly how we like it. Let niggas in the streets think we're dope boys or whatever. As long as we keep everyone in left field, we'll always stay one step ahead of the game. So, don't worry about a thang. Once you become wifey, everything in my life will finally be complete. You with that?”

“Am I! Come here!” she said as she pulled his face to hers and kissed him deeply.

After their kiss, he asked her, “So, are you goin' to work today? Or are we going to go get your wedding ring?”

She smiled and said, “Yeah, I'm going to work. You're going to go get my wedding ring, baby. I want you to pick what you want me to have on this finger,” she said as she wiggled her ring finger in front of his face.

“Your wish is my every command,
mami
,” he said as he started laughing.
Damn! This love shit feels pretty good,
he thought to himself with a smile on his face.

Katrina frowned and asked, “What's so funny, Keno?”

“I can't believe I just said some corny-ass movie shit like that.”

She playfully slapped him on his face and said, “That was not corny, Keno. That was the sweetest thing you've ever said to me.”

“Yeah, it may be, but that was still some corny-ass shit,” he said as he quickly ducked another blow from his fiancée. He grabbed her around her waist and pulled her close to him and said, “I'll be as corny as I wanna be for you,
mami
, 'cause you're about to be wifey.”

With a bright smile on her face, Katrina said, “That, I am, baby. That, I am.”

After Katrina had gotten dressed and left for work, Keno called Red and told him what he had done.

Red started laughing and said, “Nigga, stop lyin'! I know you didn't! Not you!”

“I did it, dog. As a matter a fact, I'm about to get dressed and go pick her out a tight-ass wedding ring right after I get off the phone with your ass,” Keno said proudly.

“That's cool, my nigga. Congratulations.”

“Thanks. What you got goin' on for the day?”

“Shit. I might go scoop Paquita up and take her out to lunch or something. Other than that, my plate's empty. We need to be gettin' back on our regular schedule for real. We haven't worked out in a minute.”

“Yeah, I know. But with Wild Bill out of commission and Bob still laid up, I guess Taz just ain't been feelin' it, ya know?”

“Yeah, this shit is crazy, dog. I still can't believe all of the shit that's happened. Bo-Pete's gone, dog. He's fuckin' gone!”

“I know. All we can do now is finish what we started, and live on for him, gee. His peoples is straight, so it ain't like he didn't bless the game.”

“That's one way you can look at it. But from my eyes, I'm like, why didn't the game bless my nigga? Bo-Pete didn't deserve that shit, dog.”

“I feel you. But, look, I'm in a pretty good mood right about now. I'm not tryin' to get back all depressed on the day that I've officially surrendered my playa card. I'll holla at ya later, my nigga. I'm about to go buy a wedding ring.”

Red laughed and said, “My bad, dog! Gon' and do you, my nigga. Get at me when you've finished handlin' your business.”

“Out!” Keno said and hung up the phone and went into his bathroom to take a shower so he could start his day.

After Taz finished getting dressed, he called his mother and explained his conversation with his daughter. When he was finished, Mama-Mama said, “Humph! She believed all of that, huh?”

Taz smiled into the receiver and thought,
I can fool my daughter, but I damn sure can't fool my Mama!
But to her he said, “Why wouldn't she? I meant it, Mama-Mama. I want nothing but the best for 'Neema. You know that.”

“Yes, I do know that, but don't you think for one minute that I believe you're not going to do something to that boy! I know you better than you think, Taz Good! You are not the type to let things go. And if your silly-ass daughter was thinking straight, she would be able to see through the bullshit you're pulling her through. I have one question for you, what are you going to do after you finally do whatever you have planned for that boy, Taz? And don't you dare lie to me, boy!”

He laughed and said, “Whatever's goin' to happen won't be my fault, Mama-Mama . . . at least that's how it's goin' to look.”

“Mmm-hmm. I figured that much. Bye, boy! I got my food on the stove.”

“Bye, Mama-Mama,” Taz said and hung up the phone laughing.

After taking a quick shower and getting dressed, he called Sacha at work to see if she wanted to go out to lunch with him. Sacha's receptionist told him that she was out of the office and that she would be back around one. Since it looked like he was solo for the day, he picked the phone back up and called Bob.

Bob answered the phone on the first ring and said, “What's really good, my nigga? You must have read my fuckin' mind, 'cause I was just thinkin' 'bout your ass.”

“Yeah! What's poppin', gee?”

“Please—and I mean
please
—come and rescue me from this overbearing woman of mines! She's driving me fuckin' batty in this house, dog!”

Taz started laughing and said, “Yeah, well, that's good for your ass. Gwen needs to stay on top of your ass.”

“That's the fuckin' problem! She won't get off a nigga! She's turned into some kind of fuckin' sex maniac! I'm tellin' you, gee, I'm not even fully healed, and she's tryin' to fuck my brains out! You know a nigga loves the pussy and all, but damn! A nigga needs a fuckin' break sometimes!”

Taz heard Gwen in the background scream, “What kind of man runs from some good pussy, Taz?”

Taz laughed so hard that tears started forming in his eyes. “Damn, my nigga! It's like that?”

“You fuckin' right, it's like that! Come and get a nigga, dog. You're the only one she'll let me bounce with. She said I'd run over Red, Keno or Wild Bill and get into some shit. She's comfortable if you come scoop me though. For some reason she feels you can control ‘The Bob'.”

“All right, look. Get dressed, and I'll be over there in about thirty minutes. We can go get somethin' to eat and go check out a few rental houses out in Midwest City. I checked my e-mails a li'l while ago, and saw that a few new listings have been posted.”