31
LeShelle
M
uthafuckas keep walking across my grave.
That's the only explanation I have for my ass surviving yet another attempt on my life. The shit has me shook. After the Vice Lord slobs peel off, a few of our niggas who survive the assault pour out into the street, blasting at the fading backlights of a black SUV.
“Muthafuckas slashed all of our shit,” one brothah curses, staring at row after row of flat tires.
My chest threatens to collapse. I attempt to push Python off of me, but it's like lifting a brick building. Around me, people are crying, wailing, and cursing. I can't see what's all going on. At long last, I hear a small stampede of sneakers rushing back up the church stairs.
“Python, man. Are you all right?”
Like the rest of them, I wait with bated breath for an answer. The seconds feel like minutes before Python groans and rolls off of me. Relief sweeps through me for the oxygen as well as my having avoided having the shortest marriage in history. “I'm fine,” he grumbles, sounding anything but fine. “Shell? Baby, are you all right?”
I can't recall the last time Python has spoken to me with such tenderness and concernâif the shit has ever happened. We've always talked so much shit to each other that I'm thrown for a moment. When I glance up, I see something that I've never seen before in his face: fear.
He really does love me.
“I'm good.”
Python helps me up into a seated position. I do a quick body-check, but I'm stunned that there isn't a drop of blood on me anywhere. “What the fuck?”
Smiling, Python rips open his shirt and reveals a bulletproof vest. That explains the extra bulk on his frame. “You were expecting this shit?”
“Nah. But wasn't taking any chances. Enemies all around me with their dicks out ready to piss on my grave.” He glances over his shoulder and together we take in the carnage around us.
There are at least ten bodies down, but only one catches my attention. “Oh fuck.” I stagger to my feet, ignoring the stinging scrapes on my knees and hands. “Pit Bull.”
Beside her, Kookie wails, snotting up like she's lost her soul mate. I take one look at the blood pooled around Pit Bull's body and know that her ass is gone.
“Shit.” My girl was a good soldier. I hang my head for a few seconds and wish her luck on the other side, before I take another look around.
Python is huddled up with our people, no doubt plotting and planning revenge. Rage floods my veins.
Those muthafuckas ruined my wedding.
When I replay the scene over in my mind, that bitch Lucifer sticks out like a sore thumb. There's no mistaking that evil bitch, but I'm certain that one of the other gunmen I saw spraying bullets was Ta'Shara's nigga, Profit.
“Looks like the children want to play.” My lips curl into a smile as my mind races with evil possibilities, but my fantasies are interrupted when I feel the heavy weight of someone's stare. I search around and can't find the source of my uneasiness.
Maybe I'm imagining things.
“Shell,” Python hollers.
My attention whips back to my man, who is waving me over. I tense when I see another car cruise up the street. I don't relax until it rolls to a stop and Dutchboy pops out and rushes around to open the back door.
“Let's roll,” Python roars.
Nodding, I rush to his side. The whole time, I can't shake the feeling of someone watching me.
“Let's get you out of here, baby.” Python presses a possessive kiss against my lips that takes my breath away. This new version of Python continues to surprise me. “C'mon. Get in.”
I climb into the SUV and scoot across the leather seats. A chill races down my spine.
Some muthafucka is walking across my grave.
Python climbs in after me and shuts the door. I do another desperate sweep of the scene from the backseat window. That's when I spot herâstaring a hole in the center of my head.
Cleo.
32
Qiana
I
can't move.
Lying on silk sheets across Diesel's California king bed, every inch of my body is soreâbut in a good way. Diesel has fucked me in so many different positions that I can barely remember them all. I've never been with no real nigga like this before and I definitely have never been in no big crib like his, either. Muthfuckas out here on St. Andrew know how to fuckin' live. Everywhere I look oozes money. Big money.
Smiling, I open my eyes and instantly drown in Diesel's beautiful green eyes.
“Morning,” I whisper, hoping my morning breath ain't too fucked up.
“You mean afternoon,” he corrects, his shit all minty-fresh.
“What?” I pop my head up off the pillow and look around, tryna spot a clock.The glowing red numbers on the nightstand back up his claim. It's 2 P.M.
GG is gonna kill me.
I rush off the bed with a reserve of strength that didn't exist a moment ago.
“Problem?”
“I gotta get home.” Frantic, I search around the floor for my clothes.
“Why? Your man looking for you?” Diesel asks, lazily folding his arms behind his head.
It's in that position that I notice his dick standing straight up beneath the bed's black sheets. Instantly, my pussy throbs. “I told you. I don't have a man.” I swallow and lick my lips. I remember what that fat muthafucka feels like gliding between my lips.
“You sure about that?” Diesel slides his free hand beneath the sheet to massage his hard-on.
“Positive.” I drop my clothes back onto the floor.
“Then get your fine ass back in here and take care of this shit.” He pulls the sheet down so I can watch his chocolaty dick stretch up a few more inches.
GG is gonna have to understand. I fly back into the bed and ride that fat dick until I black out.Time slips away and the next thing I know, I'm waking up again and the glowing red numbers on the clock read 3:00 and Diesel is nowhere in sight.
Groggy and still saddle-sore, I peel off the sticky sheets and go in search of my new fuck toy.The minute I step out of the bedroom, I hear Diesel talking downstairs. I creep over to the banister and peek over the rail.
Diesel grins at a curvaceous amazon of a woman who looks as if she's stepped out of the pages of a glossy magazine. The blood in my veins heats up.
He leans in and whispers something in the bitch's ear. She giggles and wiggles her breasts in his face. Bitch.
Diesel cocks his head and checks her out from head to toe. His gaze lingers on her thick ass.
Pissed, I clear my throat.
Both heads snap up in my direction.
“Oh. I didn't know that you had company.” She smiles but she doesn't bother stepping back from
my
man.
Diesel doesn't react to my standing naked above them. In fact, he dismisses me, and then inches closer to the bitch to whisper something else in her ear.
The woman laughs and then tries to downplay the shit by slapping her hand over her mouth as if that's gonna soften the blow.
No this muthafucka didn't just disrespect me like that!
Enraged, I bolt back into the bedroom and search for my clutch purse on the floor. I whip out my gat and storm back out of the room.
“Yo, bitch. I got something for you to laugh at.”
I reach the top of the staircase and take aim.
“WHAT THE FUCK?” Diesel's reflexes kick in and he jerks his giggling girlfriend out of the way at the moment I fire.
POW!
Ms. Ha-Ha screams as they hit the floor.
The bullet slams into the wall above them.
“QIANA, PUT THE DAMN GUN DOWN,” Diesel roars.
“Why don't you suck my dick?”
POW!
They split up. Diesel bolts toward the staircase while his bitch scrambles toward the front door.
“WHERE ARE YOU GOING, MS. GIGGLES?”
POW!
The third bullet tears a chunk of the door frame as my prey flees the house. I take off down the stairs in hot pursuit.
I'm so focused on getting at this bitch that I forgot about Diesel until he tackles me in the center of the stairs and knocks the gun from my hand.
“Get the fuck off me!” I swing at him, but he pins my hands down over my head and mean-mugs me hard.
“Have you lost your mind?”
“Fuck youâyou and your silly ho!” I fight harder to get loose, but he's like one large wall of muscle and my energy drains in no time flat. When I stop struggling, I'm left panting like a dog in heat.
Diesel's lips slope into that sexy grin again. “Are you through?”
I refuse to answer him. I'm waiting for him to release me so that I can beat his ass.
“Thinking about whipping my ass?”
I blink. Can he read minds?
“Since you can't speak then maybe I'll keep you pinned down like this. The shit makes my dick hard anyway.”
“Fuck you.” I smirk. “You're gonna have to get up sooner or later.”
Diesel's smile grows wider. “Damn, Scar.You'd think that I was your man or some shit.”
I cut my eyes away as my anger flips the script to embarrassment.
He laughs. “You want me to be your man?” he asks me point blank. “Is that why you're running around shooting at women? I done sprung that ass already?”
“Nigga, please.”
He laughs. “Look at me.”
I don't want to.
“C'mon, Scar. Look at your man.You were just fighting for him.”
Ignoring the voice in my head, I peek up at him and see amusement dancing in his green-blue eyes.
“I see right now that I'm going to have to train your ass if I'm gonna keep you around.”
“Who said that I want to stick around?” I challenge.
“Then it sounds like I have some more fucking to do.” He leans down and bites me on my lower lip. “Because you belong to me now.”
That shit makes me hot as fuck. Next thing I know we're back in bed having angry sex and clawing up the sheets. At 4:00, I wake to see Diesel watching me again. I smile lazily when something on his neck catches my attention. “What's that?”
Diesel frowns. “What?”
“On your neck.” I squint.“It almost looks like a horseshoe. It's kind of cute.”
“Oh. That.” He shrugs. “It's a birthmark.”
Wiz Khalifa's “Black and Yellow” blasts from my phone.
GG!
I groan. I don't want to talk to her ass. All she's gonna do is cuss me the fuck out for leaving Jayson with her for so long.
“Let it go to voice mail,” Diesel says, pinching on my titty.
My eyes bulgeâbut it feels . . . nice.
The song cuts off, signaling the call going to voice mail. In the next second, it plays again.
Damn, bitch. Go away.
The phone cuts off.
It plays again.
Diesel chuckles. “Better answer that shit before your man sends the whole Peoples Nation after you. You gangbangers stick together, don't you?”
“I done told you that I don't have a man.”
Diesel laughs. “You ain't got to be scared to call him back,” he says, nuzzling my neck. “I'll be quiet.”
He's being so cute right now that I don't even know what to do.These past few hours have been like a dream and I don't want it to end.
“Go ahead. Call,” he says but there's an underlying dare and suspicion in his voice.
I crawl out of bed to get my purse and dig out my phone. I sigh at seeing Charlie's name printed across the screen. “It's my brother.”
Diesel leans back, folds his hands behind his head, and watches me.
“Hello.”
“WHERE IN THE FUCK ARE YOU?” Charlie thunders.
I pull the phone away from my ear to save my eardrums.
“I'VE BEEN CALLING EVERY-FUCKING-WHERE LOOKING FOR YOU!”
“Charlie, calm down. I'm fine.” I glance up at Diesel. “I'm with a new friend.”
“I don't fucking believe this shit. Da Club gets shot up last night. Lil Bit and Adaryl say you were there, but no one has seen you since.You leave GG with this baby and you have the nerve not to answer your phone? This kind of shit, I expect your ass to be lying in a gutter somewhere.You feel me? We're in the middle of two damn wars right nowâand Bishop dropped last night.”
“What?” I couldn't have heard him right. “Bishop is dead?”
“Ain't that what the fuck I just said? He was killed last night. Lucifer is . . .” His sentence hangs for a second before he changes the subject. “Get home.”
His bossiness sparks my anger. “You're my brother not my father. I'll get there when I get there.”
“COME HOME!”
Instead of answering, I disconnect the call.
“Problem?”
“I gotta go.” I check out his sexy poise lying in that bed and I poke out my bottom lip.
I don't want to go home.
Wiz Khalifa starts up again.
Without looking at the caller ID, I yell into the phone: “Dammit, Charlie. I'll be there when I get there. Get off my ass!”
“Gurl, it's me, Lil Bit. Where the fuck are you? Your brother has been blowing up my shit up all day.”
Thrown, I exhale and calm down. “I'm still hanging out with a friend.”
Lil Bit gasps. “Don't tell me that you're still out with that fine muthafucka you were hugged up on last night.”
“Fine. I won't tell you. What happened last night? Charlie just told me that Bishop is dead.”
“Yeah. Everybody's tryna find out who was poppin' off at Da Club. Some people are saying it was GD, some say it was the Crips or rather those pussy-puck Crippettes that's been hitting our trap houses and shit. But there's a couple of crazy fucks spitting that Lucifer set the shit up.”
“That's crazy!”
“Is it? Everybody knows that power struggle was going to get bloody one way or another.”
“But to erase her own blood? Nah. That's not Lucifer's style.”
“Cain killed Abel. I remember that shit from Bible school.”
“Bitch, your ass ain't never been up in nobody's church. You done forgot who you're talking to.”
“Whatever, ho.”
“Well, I don't believe that Lucifer shit. The bitch is cold, butâ”
“Yeah.Yeah. I don't believe it, either. But that ain't all. That nigga Python was still alive, girl.”
“What?” Shit, the whole damn world has flipped upside down while I'm out here screwing this nigga's brains out. “But I thoughtâhow?”
“Muthafucka must've made like a fish and swam his ass out of the Mississippi. Doesn't matter because Lucifer and Profit found his ass and guess what.”
“I'm almost too afraid to ask.”
“The nigga was getting married at some old-ass church out in West Memphis.”
“Get the fuck out of here. Who was he marrying? Ain't his girl still laid up in the hospital?”
“She was. Cousin Skeet going crazy all over the news because she busted out that muthafucka.”
“What?”
Lil Bit clicks her tongue. “Yeah, girl, but they're dead though now. Lucifer and Profit handled they asses when they came out of the church.”
“Y'all sure? Sounds like death don't want to have shit to do with their asses.”
I glance up at Diesel, who's watching me like a hawk.
“Well, you better get your ass back over here. Enemies are all aroundâand you need to get rid of this baby.”