Gutta Mamis (23 page)

•  •  •

It wasn't until she was in the confines of Duke's two-story house that Tierra truly felt safe. He lived more than an hour away from the city in a nice secluded suburb. Whenever Tierra went over, it felt like home. It was where
she wanted to be. Where she needed to be. And to think she had almost allowed Shinette to convince her into breaking it off with him. Tierra was starting to believe that Shinette had been jealous of her and Duke's relationship all along. Duke took care of her to the highest degree. She didn't have to hustle. He bought her any and everything she wanted and took her wherever she wanted to go. It was the first time ever in her life that a man treated her like a queen and with respect.

•  •  •

Tierra faced Duke. The essence of their sweet lovemaking still trapped between the sheets. While Duke put it on her the way she liked it, with her unsettled thoughts, Tierra wouldn't have known the difference. What she did know was that she was right where she wanted to be—in his arms. His chocolate brown eyes melted into hers as he traced her lips before leaning in to kiss her again.

“Do you love me?” Tierra asked finally, needing the reassurance from him now more than ever.

Duke drew his neck back, completely caught off-guard by her question. “Of course I do, babe. Why you asking me a question you should already know the answer to?” He studied her glowing hazel eyes.

Tierra inhaled deeply, feeling it was the perfect time to tell him about the baby. She had thought long and hard all week about where, when, and how she would tell him. He had a right to know that his seed was growing inside of her belly. She had no doubt in her mind that Duke would make a good father. He was loving, supportive, and a provider. And although he had a warehouse job, Tierra knew without a shadow of a doubt that he would work his fingers to the bone to ensure her and the baby were okay. She ended the conference she was having with herself and determined it was time. He deserved to know everything. Even if it meant betraying her best friend. Her loyalty to Shinette and her love for Duke became a mental battle the longer she stared into his eyes.

“I'm asking…” Tierra paused and wiped the tears forming in the pockets of her eyes.

“Talk to me, babe.” Duke's brows furrowed and a worrisome look washed over his face.

She diverted her eyes before finding the strength she needed to go through with this. “I did something very bad tonight.” Tierra's bottom lip began to quiver. More tears collected on her face, somehow managing to clog her throat during their transition.

Duke placed his arm around her warm body. The pained look on Tierra's face was one he had never seen before. “Come on now,
baby. It couldn't have been that bad.” He continuously wiped away her tears. “Everything's going to be okay. I'm here.”

Duke's words hardly comforted Tierra like they would have normally, and as his large soft hands circled her back, her mind began to replay the events. Each image more vivid than before. As her swelling eyes began to burn and her head began to pound, Tierra stared at Duke with a now clouded vision. The words that followed were barely audible. As if she didn't want God himself to hear her admit to what she had done that night.

“I killed a man,” Tierra confessed.

Duke's eyes bucked and he rose completely from the covers, scooting his back against the six-foot-tall, wooden headboard. He swallowed hard and cleared his throat. “You did what?” he asked, looking at Tierra a little differently.

His reaction didn't surprise Tierra. Only confirmed what was at risk. She hesitated before continuing, feeling as if the air in the room was suddenly beginning to suffocate her.

“Shinette and I killed a man tonight.”

Duke eyed her incredulously as he tried to force his heart to override what was going through his mind. Every muscle in his body stiffened, temporarily paralyzing him. As more tears piled on Tierra's face, Duke knew that his duty was to console her. But she had dropped one helluva bombshell on him, making it close to impossible to keep a level head. He sighed deeply as his thoughts took him in circles. It was that quickly that everything he thought he knew about the woman in front of him, vanished.

“What happened?” Duke asked, finding it difficult not to judge her.

“I…didn't mean to do it,” Tierra proclaimed. She sat up in the bed. “It just happened so fast. It was either him or us,” she cried
frantically. She struggled to breathe. “Shinette had been planning this money gig for five months now. I was going to stop after this one,” she cried. Her words began to fall apart. “Oh my God. And now a man is dead.” She took a moment to gather her thoughts, shaking her head as the gory image of Keyz reappeared in her mind. Tierra lifted her hands. “I have a man's blood on my hands!”

Duke rocked Tierra in his arms as she poured out every bloody detail. She confided in him about all the other licks she and Shinette had hit in the past several weeks. Months. Years. She explained to Duke how it had been their hustle and way of survival. He listened intently. Never saying a word. Tierra stopped talking as she watched Duke's face tighten. She had hoped he wouldn't judge her, but she felt that was exactly what he was doing. Fear, intertwined with her gullible mindset, had Tierra divulging her deepest and darkest secrets. All but the one that included him—his baby.

“So did anybody see y'all tonight?” Duke asked finally.

Tierra shook her head.

“It's going to be all right.” Duke kissed her on the forehead. “In the meantime, I want you to stay here with me.”

His words sounded more like lullabies to Tierra's ears. “Okay, baby,” she replied weakly, yawning simultaneously. Her eyes grew heavier and before she knew it, she had drifted off to sleep.

“Where's this bitch at?” Shinette huffed. She had been calling Tierra all morning long and hadn't been able to get a hold of her. She started to leave another message but disconnected the call instead. She was hoping that she could talk some sense into her, but with or without her, Shinette was determined to flip last night's dope inheritance by any means necessary. In the back of her mind, Tierra would soon come crawling back once she realized the real. Game recognized game and if Tierra wasn't so dick-whipped, she would have been able to see everything that Shinette had been trying to warn her about.

All this time Shinette thought she had schooled Tierra on this street life.
Money Over Niggas
had been their hood motto and they vowed they would never let a man come between them and their paper chase. It was a pact they had formed in the very beginning. Shinette had instilled in Tierra that every man was to be treated as a prospect—a potential lick. They used every ounce of their game to manipulate men and swindle them out of their money. And when that didn't work, they straight up robbed their asses. One way or another they had to come up off the loot.

Coasting on the memories of how tight they used to be, Shinette sadly took another hit of her blunt and chalked it up to Tierra's denseness. “Some hoes get bit by the dick. That hoe got swallowed,”
Shinette guffawed as she pursed her lips and exhaled a cloud of smoke.

She slipped her cell phone back into her purse and brought her morning ritual to an abrupt end. She grabbed the duffle bag off the dining room table and headed out the door, dressed to kill in a black sleek, V-neck halter dress and five-inch heels. Her voluminous ebony curls were loosely pulled together and draped over her right shoulder. She took long strides across the parking lot all the way to her car.

Coasting along I-30 East, blasting Rick Ross, Shinette drove five miles under the speed limit. The state troopers were hot this time of day and she didn't want to give them any reason to pull her over, especially since she was only fifteen minutes away from her destination. She glanced over at the bag in the passenger's seat. Her hands began to itch from the mere thought of the money she was about to make from the swap. She lowered the sun visor and checked herself in the mirror. Yep, she looked good enough to eat.

•  •  •

Tierra woke to the sound of voices coming from downstairs. She heard Duke and another man talking over one another. She lay in bed for a moment longer, straining her ears and trying to make out what they were saying. Her attempts were useless. She squinted her tired eyes at the radio clock. It was 11:21 a.m. She had clearly overslept.

Feeling the sudden urge to pee, she hopped out of bed, naked, and made a beeline for the bathroom. The events from the night before came crashing down on her before she could even relieve herself. Tierra tried to block out the flashing images that burned in her mind, but couldn't. She could almost smell Keyz's decomposing corpse as if she were still there in that alley. She could see
his fluttering eyelids fighting to stay open as life deserted him. Tierra woke up this morning a murderer, and no matter where she ran or hid, she could never escape what she and Shinette had done.

Tierra jacked up the toilet lid and lowered her face over the bowl. She began to regurgitate. Shortly after that, the queasy feeling swarming inside of her stomach subsided. She grabbed a towel from the linen closet and walked over to the sink. She turned on the cold water, then cupped her hands under the stream. She dipped her head into the sink and splashed her face repeatedly. She took some water into her mouth, swished it around, and spat it back into the sink. She finally stared at the woman in the mirror, hardly recognizing her. This killer. Unable to stand the sight of herself any longer, she hopped into the tub and showered for almost an hour.

The cold hardwood squeaked beneath Tierra's feet as she retreated back to the bedroom. She no longer heard Duke and his company. She figured they'd both left. She walked over to the window anyway and peered out the shutters. Duke's work van was parked in the driveway next to his Audi. Knowing he was still home brought Tierra some relief. She rubbed her stomach as she walked over to the chair where her purse was and retrieved her cell phone. She had several missed calls and text messages. All were from Shinette. She scrolled over each text until she came to the last one that read:
MONEY OVER NIGGAS!
Tierra shook her head, disgusted that Shinette could even be thinking about money at a time like this. Shinette proved to be just as heartless and cutthroat as she always boasted to be. Tierra instantly began deleting the messages, and as she was doing so, her phone started to ring. Tierra didn't recognize the number but answered anyway.

“Hello,” Tierra said apprehensively.

“Damn, it's like that now. I gotta call you from a different number in order for you to answer your phone?” Shinette asked coolly.

Tierra rolled her eyes. Shinette was the
last
person she wanted to speak to. “Look, we don't have nothing to talk about,” she quipped.

Shinette couldn't believe that after all she'd done for Tierra, this was how she repaid her. She gave her a place to lay her head when no one else did. Took her under her wings and even taught the bitch how to fly. Duke had done exactly what she suspected he would. He had come between their friendship. Anger danced in Shinette's eyes. This was cutting her deep.

“You know what,” Shinette began. “I've always looked out for you. I treated you like you were my motherfucking blood and you gon' play me like this! That pussy hoe over there can't save you. You the side bitch, dummy!”

Tierra shook her head, predicting where the conversation was headed. She cut Shinette off before she could go any further. “I already told you what I had to say so you can quit—”

“It's that hoe-ass nigga, isn't it?” Shinette blurted out of nowhere. “Your head is so far up his nut sac, you shitting peanuts!”

“Fuck you! This ain't about Duke so leave him out of it. This is between
you
and
me!”

A devious smirk on her face, Shinette allowed her words to marinate her tongue before their long and overdue exit. “See, that's where you're wrong again. This
is
about your man.” With that, Shinette ended the call.

Tierra held the phone in her hand a minute longer before realizing that Shinette had hung up in her face. That last remark left a bitter taste in her mouth, but she was too wrapped up in her own thoughts to entertain Shinette's bullshit. “Who was that?” Duke asked, causing Tierra to jump at the sound of his deep voice. Unbeknownst
to Tierra, he had overheard parts of her conversation.

Tierra turned around to face Duke who looked even sexier in the morning. He was dressed casually in solid black jeans and a black wife beater that exposed his tattoo sleeves. His presence always brought a smile to her face.

“You scared me.” Tierra smiled as she wrapped her hands loosely around his neck, kissing him on his mahogany lips.

Duke relaxed his shoulders and smiled. “My bad, baby.”

“I thought you had to work today.”

“Called in. Family emergency.”

Tierra's face lit up. “Awww…you didn't have to call in for me, baby.”

Duke wore his handsome charismatic smile so well. Too well. “Who'd you say that was again?”

“Nobody but Shinette.”

Duke looked past Tierra's innocent face and saw nothing but a stone-cold killer. He didn't sleep a wink last night and it was all because of her. Tierra had dropped so much on him that not everything registered until four-thirty this morning when he received a phone call from one of his workers, informing him that he had been robbed, and that his cousin, Keyz, had been murdered. His body had been found in an alley. Duke wanted to die when he received the news. He and Keyz were like brothers. In fact, they called each other brothers. They were raised and brought up in the same home, and when they got older, they moved out and began doing exactly what they saw Duke's father do—hustle. The only difference between the two cousins was that Duke had chosen to maintain a legitimate lifestyle and stay low-key. He allowed Keyz and his other workers to run his drug operations while he worked full-time as a warehouse manager for a roofing company that paid
minimum wage compared to his side hustle. But it served its purpose and kept the Feds off his back.