The Corner II (18 page)

This Is My Family Now

L
aTanza pulled up in the driveway of her Romeoville home. She had given Fernando the rest of the day off. She and Carlita had used this nice summer day to do some shopping. She was showing her daughter the
right
way to do things—how to spend money. It didn’t matter how much, just spend, spend, spend because it didn’t make sense to die with the money in the bank. Later on in life she would show her young daughter how to get money. She’d watched Carlos make millions hand over fist and she loved him for that. He was her everything in a world where people were deceitful. Where people will smile in your face and stab you in the back. No one had ever loved her besides him, not even her sister or her mother—at least not in her mind. She was getting a few of the bags out of the trunk of her Mercedes when, Consuela, her maid, came out to help her with the bags.

“Oh, thanks, Consuela,” she said to the older heavyset woman from Columbia, who was a big help to her.

“Si, Mrs. Fuentes. How was your day?” She looked down at Carlita who was as dark as her mother but with her father's features. “And you Miss Carlita? Did you get everything you wanted?”

“Oh, me and mommy did like they said in that video, we shopped until we dropped. Well…we didn’t drop but we did shop,” she said gleefully sounding older than the age of six. LaTanza closed the trunk. The three of them with bags in every hand walked up the cobblestone walkway. “Is my husband home?”

“Si. He and Senor Fuentes are in his office.”

“Good. I’m not supposed to be home until late. But I bought him a diamond encrusted Jacobs and want to surprise him.”

“That’s wonderful,” the maid said with her heavy accent flowing. She looked up at the sky as the dark clouds that were rolling towards their neighborhood had finally made their way over their home and heavy drops began to fall as the women made it to the front door.

Consuela kept Carlita in the kitchen and made her a grilled cheese while LaTanza made her way to the bedroom. LaTanza set her bags of expensive items on the floor in front of the king sized bed. She took out the Jacobs and set it on the pillow. She then spread a garter and panty set she’d purchased from Victoria’s Secret on the bed. She decided to go speak to her father-in-law and also see how long it was going to be before Carlos was free. LaTanza also wanted to be fucked. Shopping made her that way. It turned her on and she needed Carlos to add some more kindling to the flame that was burning inside her and then extinguish it with his love. She kicked off the Baby Phat heels then headed downstairs. It was getting darker and the winds had picked up as it rained even harder. She hoped that Mr. Fuentes wasn’t staying long because she wanted to sex her husband while it was storming. When she arrived at the door to Carlos’ office something told her to stop. She did and listened. She was glad that her intuition told her to hold up and listen because she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

Mr. Fuentes yelled at his son, “I love my granddaughter but she’s half Negro and a girl. You met LaTanza when you were only twenty-one and fell in love with the pussy!”

LaTanza’s brow furrowed and anger overwhelmed her as she listed.
What the fuck, half Negro! Fell in love with the pussy!

“Papa, you know I don’t like it when you talk like this. That’s my wife and daughter you're talking about!” Carlos shouted.

You’d better take up for me!

“Fuck, Carlos. I love them, too, but you need to have a boy by a Spanish woman. What’s up with Angelica, why haven’t you gotten her pregnant yet? You need a full-blooded Hispanic boy to carry my name. To take over like you are going to do. If you don’t have a son that means Carlita has to inherit all this.”  He waved his arm across the lavishly furnished office. “That was the purpose of me getting you and Angelica together. Now you have to stay married to LaTanza. I do love her, but you have to have a boy. A full blooded Hispanic.”

Who the fuck is this Angelica bitch!
LaTanza’s hands began to shake. Her anger was getting the best of her and that meant that she needed her medication. The same medication she’d thrown out on the road after filling the prescription.

She stayed a bit longer and heard Carlos tell his father that Angelica was to see the doctor in a couple of days—that she'd been late on her period. The old man's tone changed and joy filled his words as he told Carlos that that was good and it was about time he got her pregnant. LaTanza’s teeth clenched as she pictured the gray haired head of the family smiling. She thought about grabbing her pistol and shooting them both in the face. The thought of her daughter being harmed made her very angry. It didn’t matter whether it was physically or mentally. Her being raped for years like she had or being robbed of an inheritance that was rightfully hers was all the same. LaTanza had made a promise to herself that no harm would come to her child and that she would kill anyone without hesitation that tried to do such a thing. When she heard Senor Fuentes tell his son that he had plans to give all to a child that wasn’t by his son’s wife, with all that they had worked for—she snapped. When she had killed that drug dealer from St. Louis while his teenage daughter was in the car watching, it was done for Carlos to show Senor Fuentes that she belonged and she felt that she was considered one of them. Carlos’ down ass wife—and now here she was listening to her father-in-law and her husband talk about his secret affair and their plans to give an illegitimate child the keys to the kingdom. She knew then that Carlos had to pay in a way where he suffered—and Senor Freddy Fuentes, well, he had to die.

*     *     *

Things had been going well ever since the three major crews had come to an understanding that they were to sell only in their respected areas and no moving in on other crews’ corners, clubs and houses. Basically, hustle in your neighborhood and that’s it. So, besides the regular beat downs and side hustling here and there, all was good in the hustling neighborhoods.

Anthony counted his sit-ups out loud. Tesha was lying in the queen-size bed reading an Ebony magazine. It was ten in the morning and they were just getting their day started. They had been out all night so they stayed in the bed a couple of hours longer than usual. Lately, Anthony had been staying at Tesha’s house often. Lucky eventually found out about their relationship and told Tesha that she had to quit working at the club. Not that he was angry; Lucky just thought that it would be best if his son’s woman wasn’t working for him. It didn’t matter. Anthony was pulling in a lot of money and he had no problem sharing it with his woman.

Anthony got up from the floor breathing a little heavily. “What you have up for the day?”

“Me and Chantel are going to the mall to do a little shopping. Why, you wanna tag along?” she asked as she turned the pages of her magazine.

He threw his sweaty towel on her face. “You know I ain’t trying to tag along with y’all to no mall to be a bag carrier. Is Noonie going?”

“No, and don’t be throwing your sweaty ass towel on me!”

“Can you pick me up some of that new Sean John cologne?”

Tesha smiled. “Okay.”

“Yeah, you like it when I wear that good smelling shit.”

She frowned as she got up heading to the bathroom to take a shower. “Ain’t nothing worse than when a brotha is all up in your face with cheap ass smelling cologne slathered all over his body talking about ‘what’s up baby you looking fine’ that just makes me want to throw my drink on his ass. Better he smell like Hennessy.” 

Anthony shook his head and laughed as she closed the shower door. He could hear the water begin to run. He was about to slide out of his shorts and underwear and try to get a quickie in the shower, but the house phone rang interrupting him. It was Chantel calling to see if Tesha was still going shopping. Ant told her that she was in the shower getting ready. Chantel said for him to let her know that she’d be at their house in an hour. He asked if Noonie was going. She told him that he and DC were hooking up. He told her cool and got off the phone to go get some loving. As soon as he headed toward the bathroom his cell phone rang.

“What the fuck?” he yelled.

He saw that the number was private and normally wouldn’t have answered, but this was the time Baby G usually called, Sunday mornings. Once the automated system went through its formalities of telling him that it was a call from Jackson State Prison, he pressed the appropriate number then he answered, “What’s up G, how you living up in there?”

“Same shit different day. Got my date.”

Excited, Ant asked, “When nigga. Spit it out.”

“Well, it ain’t exact cause they got to take in account schooling and shit I took and all them other classes, but I should be out in January chillin’ wit yo’ ass.”

“You’re welcome, you know you fam.”

“True that and I wanna say good lookin’ out on the two c-notes you sent last week.”

“I put a couple more in the mail yesterday.”  Anthony didn’t hear the water running anymore. Tesha was getting out of the shower. He was just going to have to wait until tonight to get some of her good loving.

“That’s love my nigga, but the reason I called was I got some bad news and with you being in the Chi and all I know you probably ain’t heard.”

“What’s up?”

“Tavarious is dead. It happened yesterday.”

Anthony was quiet for a moment as he thought about his friend who had never been right since his brother’s death. Tavarious’ mother had blamed him for it and he took it hard.

“You still there?” G checked.

“Yeah, man. T, damn. How’d it happen?”

“I heard that Winchester has moved back in town and I guess he figured that he couldn’t be touched. You know that nigga is paid like you wouldn’t believe. Nigga went down south and cleaned up on them country niggas. He moved back to the ‘D’ cause his mom is sick. Word is T and his cousin caught that nigga at the club. They tried to pop his ass when he went to the bathroom. The word is the shit was like the wild, wild, west. T dropped a bodyguard but got popped in the chest, leg and head. His cousin is in critical. That fat cat Winchester got nine lives.”

“Fat bitch, what’s he about thirty-eight now?” Anthony spat.

Tesha heard Anthony as she was walking out of the bathroom. She was finishing the drying of her dark skin when she joked, “I thought you were going to come in and help me wash?”

Ant managed a smile then told her it was G on the line.

“Hi, Gerald,” she yelled so Baby G could hear her.

He told Ant, “Man, tell Tesha I said was’sup, but also when I get out she can’t be on no Gerald shit. It’s Baby G.”

“I hear you. But really that nigga Winchester thinks he’s untouchable.”  That was all Anthony and G said about Winchester. They were on a prison line and it was possible that every word was recorded.

“But other than that it’s all good. You know me, I’m holdin’ it down. Oh yeah. Niggas told me to tell you what’s up.”

“Tell ’em all what’s happening.”

Anthony and Baby G didn’t go into their names. Ant knew whom he was talking about because it was only a handful of studs that they really gave a shit about and who Ant told G to help with their commissary. They also were running out of the allotted fifteen minutes. They talked about as much as they could until the automated system cut them off. Anthony closed his cell and sat on the edge of his bed as he thought about Tavarious. Tesha could see that something was troubling her man. She stopped rubbing the Shea butter on the dark spots on her body to check on him. He had told her about most of his life in the two short months they’d been seeing each other. He was comfortable with her. The first time he’d felt this way about someone and that wasn’t hard seeing as how most of his young adult life had been spent in the penitentiary. She held him as he told her what had happened to Tavarious. He was shook a bit and she did what she thought was the only thing she could do at the moment she crawled on top of Anthony. Chantel would have to wait an extra thirty minutes for Tesha had to comfort her man.

*     *     *

She rode the big man and moaned like it was the best she’d ever had. She squint her eyes as she traced his goatee with her fingers then slipped them into his mouth. His tongue was smooth and worked in the same manner as it did when it danced on her clit. The same way it did when he was savoring ever bit of her nectar. She bucked harder as she pinched his nipples. His eyes were closed most of the time relishing the moment that he’d dreamed of and jacked off to not daring to attempt to make a reality.

LaTanza was Carlos’ wife.

His boss’s wife.

The most powerful Latin cocaine dealer in Chicago's daughter-in-law.

Fernando couldn’t believe when LaTanza showed up at his doorstep this Sunday morning all decked out in an olive colored dress that complimented her pecan skin tone. She looked so innocent and he bet that the people at the Catholic Church she and Carlos attended probably would ban her or make her sit in confession to repent. They’d make her say thirty Hail Marys and Our Fathers if they had known how ruthless she was and the things she’d done even though she was a bit mentally unstable.