Payback Ain't Enough (21 page)

“That’s because I made him promise not to. Don’t get him mixed up in our business.”

“What do you mean you made him promise? What y’all got going on? Why are you protecting this nigga? You don’t even know him like that. How stupid could you be to call a nigga over that you don’t even know and give him ten bricks? Shan, what the fuck have you been smoking?” He was dead-ass serious.

“Leave him out of this, Briggen.”

“Leave him out of this?” He laughed. “Who the fuck is this nigga to you? Why are you being so overprotective with this nigga? What, you fuckin’ him?”

“Of course not.” My tongue was getting thick. I was so nervous I could hardly swallow.

“Then what is it? Go ahead and tell me the truth. You fuckin’ this nigga, right?”

I didn’t know if I should come clean about me and Nick. I mean, for me, that would be like opening up a can of worms.

“The truth, Shan! Or are you just a stupid bitch?”

“Bitch? You calling me bitch now, Briggen? I’m not stupid! I’ve known Nick since I was in high school. He was my brother’s best friend.”

No, this bitch didn’t just sit here and tell me she has known my connect for years. I mean, how shiesty could that be? When I first introduced them to each other in the backyard, them muthafuckas acted as if they didn’t know each other. I mean, what the fuck was that all about? How long have they been sneaking around socializing and shit behind my back?

“You know what, Shan? This is a little too much information for me to digest right now.” This bitch had thrown me for a loop. My mind was all over the place. Ain’t nothing worse than a man having to wonder if his woman is getting dick behind his back. And with the connect?

“Briggen, it’s not what you’re thinking.” She had the audacity to say to me with a straight face.

“How the fuck do you know what I’m thinking? You guilty?” I spat.

“I can tell by the look on your face what you are thinking. But no, trust me when I tell you that we are not fucking. He’s like family to me. He’s like a brother,” Shan had the nerve to tell me.

“Yeah, right! You fuckin’ the nigga.”

“No. I’m not.”

“You lyin’ bitch! Yeah, you fuckin’ him.”

“I’m not lyin’. I did but—”

“You did?” I grabbed her by her hair.

“When we were in school, Briggen. A long time ago. He got me pregnant and I got an abortion. I was only sixteen. That was the last time.”

“You bitch! Why the fuckin’ secrets? You could have told me this shit a long time ago.” He shoved my head back.

“Bitch?” she asked with squinted eyes and taking deep breaths. “It’s like that? I don’t deserve being called a bitch.” She looked at me with tear-filled eyes.

“And I don’t deserve the bullshit you’ve taken me through. So now we even.” I started to walk away but quickly turned back around.

“Why didn’t you tell me you knew him? Where is your fuckin’ loyalty, Shan? I can understand and don’t expect any loyalty from him, but you are supposed to be my wife. You know what? I’m out of here. Y’all deserve each other.”

“Briggen, wait!” She tried to grab me.

“Don’t touch me Shan.” I got the hell out of there as fast as I could before I found myself putting a hurting on her. Everything was clear to me now except for the real relationship between her and Nick. That was a calculated move on both of their parts to not tell me that they knew each other. And to not know why had me spooked.

I felt relieved for having to tell Briggen about me and Nick. It wasn’t as if we were fucking; like I told him, I was only sixteen. I just needed him to take care of the business for me. On the other hand, it felt good to get the shit out in the open about the abortion. I needed to tell that to somebody.

I had been blowing up Nick’s phone, but he never answered. He probably thought that I was calling to ask about the rest of my money, but I wanted to put him on notice that the gig was up. Briggen knew everything. Plus, I wanted to let him know that the people whose package I ended up with knew
that I had it. Strangely enough, I wasn’t worried. Between the two of them niggas, they needed to handle it. They were my protectors. Nick, because he sold the dope off, so the dirt was on his hands. And as far as Briggen goes, I knew regardless of how angry he might be, he would never let anything happen to me.

I got back into the tub and took the hot bath that I needed. I had a long day ahead of me. I had to get my new hairstyle for the photo shoot, and my first show was Friday night. And I couldn’t forget the Halloween party was the following weekend.

The minute my body calmed down and relaxed in the hot, soothing, bubbly water, the doorbell rang. Now I had to jump out of the tub, grab a towel and run downstairs. It probably was Keeta. Briggen must have stopped by and told her all of our business.

When I peeked out of the door, to my surprise, it was Nick. I rushed to open it up.

“What’s up? You’ve been blowing up my phone.” I closed the door, and he gave me a hug. “Are you okay?” he asked with concern in his voice.

We stood there hugging as I spoke into his chest. “Briggen just left. He came over to tell me that I was on my own. They found my tag, they know their stash ended up at this house, and…” I took a deep breath, “I had to tell him about you. He now knows that me and you go way back.”

Nick remained quiet as we stood there rocking each other. It felt good being in his arms, and I could have been mistaken but it felt like he was getting a hard-on.

He finally spoke, “I’m just glad you are okay. And I knew
it was only a matter of time before he would find out. Hell, we were the ones who made him suspicious.”

“Suspicious?” I asked as I leaned back and looked up at his face. And when I leaned back, yes, I felt it. Nick’s dick was hard. And the scary part was, I didn’t care. I remained right there pressed up against it.

“Yeah, suspicious. Brig is sharp, Shan. He didn’t get to where he is by being a slouch.”

“I know that, but we didn’t give him anything to be suspicious about.”

“I came over here twice while he was locked up. That did it. But there ain’t shit we can do about that now. I’m just glad that you are alright.”

His hand slid down to my ass and pulled me closer. I was already pressing up against him. But now I was up on it. He leaned in and kissed my forehead and then my cheek. I could feel a little juice oozing out of my pussy. Rocking up against his dick was feeling nice. His dick was getting harder, and my pussy was getting wetter.

“Give me a kiss, Shan,” he ordered. I froze. He was rubbing and squeezing my ass. “Give me a kiss,” he said again, but this time with a little more force.

I glanced up at him and he kissed me and I kissed him back. I found myself wrapping my arms around his neck. He lifted me up and took me to my new marble dining room table and sat me on top of it. We kept kissing like we were in high school. He unloosened my towel, and it fell off me. He started playing with my nipples. I was on fire. He took my hand and placed it on his hard on. I squeezed and rubbed it. It was on. I thought about how the curve felt when it was
up in my pussy and went to unloosening his belt and unzipping his pants. He wouldn’t stop kissing me and teasing my nipples, so I pulled his dick out and started rubbing it up and down my pussy. I hadn’t had any dick in months. I put the head to my opening, and Nick did the rest. He stopped kissing me and grabbed my ass and eased inside of me. We started fucking each other right there on my brand-new dining room table. That little curve in his dick was still there. I spread my legs wider, encouraging him to fuck me deeper and harder.

“This pussy always belonged to me. Make sure you tell Briggen that. Now bring it on to daddy.”

I grabbed his ass and got my fuck on. Yes, I had done the unforgiveable. I thought about pushing him off me, but it was too late. I had already gone too far, and plus, it was feeling… “mmmmm,” I moaned. Too good to stop it if I wanted to.

My eyes popped open. I was frantic and shivering. I was still in the tub. The water was cold. I had dozed off.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

I was curled up in Cisco’s arms as we lay on the bed watching Kevin Hart’s
Laugh at My Pain.

“Baby, I heard that the bitch who jacked your package is running around here promoting shows. She’s acting as if she did nothing wrong,” I purred those words and snuggled closer to him.

“Yeah, well, don’t worry about her. Her days are numbered,” he said as if he knew something I didn’t. But it still wasn’t good enough for me. I wanted that bitch dead… and I wanted it yesterday.

“I’m just saying. She flossin’ hard.” I pressed the issue.

“I got this, baby girl. She’ll be handled. Trust and believe that.”

I wasn’t convinced. Number one, the bitch was still breathing, and number two, they didn’t know Briggen the way I knew him. I gave them the intel on her over a month and
a half ago. I pushed Cisco’s arms off me and crawled out of the bed.

“I’ll catch you later,” I snapped, unable to mask my attitude.

“What’s the matter with you? I thought you was going to hang with me tonight. We ain’t even fuck yet.” He pushed the satin sheets off him and got out of bed.

“I got something to do. I’ll catch you later.” I was disgusted and didn’t want to be around him, not right now. He stood there baffled as I threw on my clothes and rushed out of there.

That dream I had about Nick and me gettin’ busy was creepy. But the matter at hand and what was pressing was for me to move. Nick felt that it wasn’t safe for me to stay there and suggested that I come over to his place until things blew over. I wasn’t about to put myself in that position, because my dream would have become a reality, and I wasn’t ready for that.

So, I declined and told him I would get my own place and I did. I found a nice condo inside a brand new subdivision out in Farmington Hills. Far away from the city and about an hour from where we lived. It was brand new, three bedrooms, two and a half baths, full basement, den, living room and dining room. It would do for the moment. Me and three guys from the moving company stuffed the truck with everything we could. I had them bring over my dining room set and Anthony’s bedroom set. The rest of that shit was Briggen’s. I gave Keeta ten stacks to go pick out and pay for
my living-room and bedroom furniture. I got the receipts and arranged for the delivery. I didn’t tell her where I lived. Like I said, it was only temporary and plus, she loved to shop. I wasn’t going back to our house. I had what I needed and what I didn’t have I could buy.

I had to finish getting ready for my first sold-out show. I couldn’t have cared less that there was a bounty on my head. Wasn’t shit gonna spoil this for me.

All of a sudden Cisco was sweating me about taking out Briggen. I told him I would, when the time was right. I almost had my plan airtight when I got word that my cousin Sharia was in Cisco’s ear and now he was sending niggas after him where he rested.

“Man, what are you doing? I told you I got this. Let me do my job.” I was trying to get him to back off.

“You taking too long,” he said.

“According to who?” I almost blurted out Sharia’s name.

“According to the streets. The streets talking about I’m soft. You know when that happens, more niggas think they can chump me,” he rationalized.

“The streets ain’t saying shit, Cisco. You gonna fuck up my plan,” I warned him.

“No, I ain’t! I’m just sending a message, that’s all.”

“By who?” This nigga was really starting to irk me. “What kind of message and by who?”

“I got them niggas going over there later on.”

“Awww, man. We talked about this, Cisco.”

“Nigga, if you feel that they are gonna fuck the mission up, ride wit’ ’em. As a matter of fact, I
want
you to go with them.”

“Naw, man. I do my dirt all by my lonely. That way if something goes wrong, it’s on me. I’m not taking a fall for some other nigga’s stupidity. You go ahead and send a bunch of trigger-happy punks and watch how they gonna fuck it up.” This fool had me pacing back and forth.

Cisco stood up. “I’m not
telling
you, man! I’m
ordering
you to go with them.”

“And I’m
telling
you, no! I’m advising you to fall back.” We were now toe to toe.

“Dark, you forgettin’ who your superior is. Don’t forget who put you on.” He spat in my face.

“And you don’t forget who got these niggas fearin’ you.” I spat back at his and then turned and left.

AND JUST LIKE I
told him, them dummies would fuck up… they did. They went by the house, sprayed it with bullets, and no one was home. There was only one casualty, and that was the neighbor’s poodle. That shit was all over the local news stations. The only plus I saw was that the media gave up all they had on the residents. The report went like this:

“We now have breaking news. This is Alexis Wiley live for Fox 2 News on the scene of what appeared to be an attempted drive-by in this usually quiet community. Eyewitnesses report hearing numerous gunshots around the home of a Mrs. Shan McGhee, a show promoter and
owner of RedBone Entertainment, who recently moved from the residence just days ago according to an eyewitness.