Fistful of Benjamins (23 page)

“L
eon! No! Please stop!” I screamed, feeling blood rushing to my face.

“Motherfucker! You thought I was gonna let you fuck my wife and take yours back and live happily ever after?!” Leon yelled as he waved the gun at Troy.

Troy looked like a man possessed. His eyes were bloodshot, and his fists were curled tightly.

“Fuck you, nigga! I didn't fuck that skank Charlene! But you wasted no time fucking my wife!” Troy growled as he lunged at Leon. I ran to come between them. I didn't want them to fight over me. Just as I came toward Troy, I stopped in my tracks.

BAM! BAM! I heard the shots so loudly I didn't even feel any pain.

I could feel myself screaming, but amazingly, I couldn't hear myself. Next, I felt a hot burning sensation envelope my body.

BAM! BAM! Two more shots and everything in my world went black.

 

I jumped out of my sleep covered in sweat. I swallowed hard and looked over at Troy. He was sleeping soundly as usual. I guess it was easy for him, since he wasn't the one who'd almost died. I had been severely shot and almost died. The hospital staff saved my life when Troy thought the lifeless body covered with a white sheet belonged to me. He didn't know it, but I had been taken out of that operating room long before the other person had been brought in. God rest her soul.

Luckily for me, two shots went straight through—one in my shoulder, the other in my arm. It was the third shot that had done me damage. As a result, I had my spleen removed. But what hurt most were the infidelities that transpired between all of us. I don't remember much about that night, except that Troy had come over to the hotel I was hiding out in. Unfortunately, Leon came as well. Things escalated when Troy realized that during the spouse trade, Leon and I had had sex. As it turned out, it wasn't my fault things with Leon and I had gone to that level.

Leon's wife, Charlene, had convinced me that she had had sex with my husband first. She had said some very cruel things to me over the phone, and I was crushed to my core. When she told me Troy had just finished eating her out and that he was
indisposed
, as she put it, I was devastated beyond belief.

Out of revenge and hurt, I slept with Leon. I had no idea the feelings would grow into what we did. So, when he got sentenced to all that time, I was hurt.

 

It had been seven months since my husband, Troy, and I had participated in the hit reality show
Trading Spouses.
It had also been seven months since that fucking show ruined our lives and the lives of Troy's best friend, Leon, and his wife, Charlene.

The guys had been childhood buddies and best friends almost all of their lives. They had done everything together growing up, but all of that changed. When we'd agreed to trade spouses for one week for ten thousand dollars, none of us knew it wouldn't be worth it in the end. Because Charlene disconnected the cameras in our house, we were sanctioned and no was paid one red cent. The TV execs did pay for my medical bills, but aside from that, we didn't get shit.

Troy and I tried to repair our marriage in the aftermath of it all. But in my eyes, it was over. When I found out I was pregnant, I decided it would probably be best for me to hold on to someone for the baby's sake . . . rather than becoming a statistic.

Troy was the closest thing.

I looked around my bedroom, and a cold feeling came over me just thinking about the shit that had happened. I touched my very pregnant belly and felt my baby move inside of me. I closed my eyes and sighed.
Baby
was the operative word . . . because the father was an issue. Although Troy believed it was his baby, I thought for sure I knew differently.

“Trice? You okay, baby?” Troy asked, rousing from his sleep. I kept my back to him and closed my eyes.

“I'm fine. Just another nightmare,” I said without looking at him.

Troy reached out and rubbed his hands over my back. His touch made me feel dirty and partly guilty. I had been thinking about Leon in that moment.

“How's my little bun in the oven doing?” Troy asked, still rubbing my back.

“Fine. The baby is fine,” I replied, a little annoyed. I stood up swiftly and grabbed my robe from the end of our bed. I rolled my eyes as I left the room. I shuddered at Troy being all mushy and loving. He had been nothing but good to me since the entire incident with Leon. But I couldn't get my feelings to change toward him for anything. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I blamed Troy for everything that had happened.

I was still convinced he'd slept with Charlene. The producers of the show couldn't help me disprove it. And since that dumb bitch Charlene had disconnected the camera wires, that didn't do shit for my suspicions. Why else would she have disconnected the cameras if they weren't fucking?

I knew all about how grimy Charlene was from Leon. He told me how she was a lazy hood rat that barely took care of their son, and she never did any of the cleaning around the house. She was uneducated, and all she did was hustle the welfare system to make extra money. In other words, Charlene was a bum bitch.

Leon had assured me repeatedly that I had way more class than Charlene. He had also aired Troy's dirty laundry by telling me that Troy had thought about cheating on me once. Troy had gotten so close that he and the girl were naked before he backed out of it. Leon also told me that Troy complained that I didn't fuck him enough or suck his dick at all. Wasn't that some bullshit?

It was just like Troy to tell half the fucking story. I knew Leon wasn't making shit up because it was true. I refused to suck Troy's dick, and I also rationed out the pussy. I loved Troy for how good he was as a provider and person, but his dick game was whack. His dick was so skinny and short that most times I couldn't even feel it. It was like getting fucked by a baby.

When Troy and I dated, I tried to ignore the horrible sex by keeping my eye on the prize. The prize was having a house, nice car, nice things, and of course, security. I thought I could just look past the fact that his sex was horrendous and fall in love with everything else, like Troy's personality. He had the ability to provide the fairy-tale life we had.

Well, after we got married, I just couldn't do it. I tried and tried. Troy would beg for sex, and sometimes I would just give in for argument's sake. Most times, I would lie there praying for it to be over . . . all five minutes of it. I mean, he even had the nerve to be a fucking two-minute brother with a small dick.

I tried buying sex toys and that worked for a while, but sometimes I longed for some good ol' righteous hard dick. I wanted and needed some real skin-to-skin contact, not that plastic feeling from my toys. I wanted a man to use his God-given gift to dig my back out. Unfortunately for Troy, during the spouse trade, that's exactly what happened. Leon's dick was huge and oh so good. And during our lovemaking, I had an orgasm for the first time in ten years. Leon had fucked me in several different positions that I never dared to try with Troy. It was frustrating as hell to always have Troy's little dick fall out of my pussy. I couldn't imagine how frustrated I would get trying anything other than our traditional missionary position. Hell, even when we did the doggie position, his little dick would constantly slip out.

But Leon was different. He had me hooked. Although I was fighting the reality of what he had done to me. I tried to put Leon and his sex out of my mind, but between feeling vulnerable after finding out that Troy had the nerve to cheat on me with Charlene and having Leon comfort me with that beautiful piece of meat, I was all in. I was head over heels for Leon so fast that I had amazed even myself. I was ready to walk away from my marriage and even live a more modest life. Leon wasn't as successful and didn't have as much as Troy, but the sex had me ready to throw it all away—the house, the cars, the fat bank account, and everything Troy did for me.

But I knew Troy . . . and he wouldn't let go that easily.

I shook off the thoughts of Leon and his wonderful dick as I walked out of the bedroom and headed downstairs. It was still dark outside. I shuffled my swollen feet into the kitchen and poured a glass of milk. I quietly lifted a metal canister off the top of the refrigerator and retrieved the secret cell phone I had purchased. I slid it into my robe pocket and sat down with my glass of milk. I didn't hear any footsteps coming from upstairs, which probably meant Troy had scratched his balls and went right back to sleep.

I looked around, ensuring I was careful. I took out the phone and powered it up. My heart raced feverishly as the missed calls began appearing on the phone.

“Damn,” I cursed under my breath. They were all missed calls from the prison facility where Leon was housed. I had gotten the phone just to have secret communications with him. It was foul, I know, but I couldn't help it.

I was reading through all of the missed calls, trying to put together the last time Leon called me. I was so engrossed scrolling through the numbers and lost in thought that I didn't hear Troy enter the kitchen.

“Whatcha got there?” Troy asked, smiling from the doorway.

“Oh shit!” I exclaimed, dropping the phone into my lap. “You scared the shit out of me, Troy! What're you trying to do, make me go into labor early? And why in the hell are you sneaking up on me?!” I gasped, placing my hand over my chest.

He had caught me red-handed, but I had recovered fast.

“Damn, Trice, calm down. I just wanted to make sure you were okay. You got out of bed so abruptly,” Troy replied, looking at me strangely as he walked toward the table where I was sitting.

“Well, make some noise next time. I mean, it's like you are always lurking in the shadows somewhere,” I said, making sure the phone went into the pocket of my robe.

“Were you reading something?” Troy probed, standing over me.

“No, I wasn't. I happened to be saying my daily prayer,” I lied. I got up from the table so hard the kitchen chair went slamming to the floor. “I didn't know you worked for the FBI now!” I snapped, stomping out of the kitchen. I had to get away from his ass fast.

“Damn, I can't wait for your moody ass to have that baby. You treat me like shit on a daily!” I heard Troy yelling at my back.

“Oh, shut the fuck up,” I mumbled in response.

I needed to get the fuck out of the house so I could accept the twelve o'clock call from Leon. Speaking to him was the only thing that would make me feel better right now.