Thug Matrimony (17 page)

“So who’s really running the label?”

“They both are. They are a team. Like Bonnie and Clyde.”

Phillip reached over, grabbed Dougie’s drink, and threw it back! Too lazy to open the bottle of Patrón the first waitress brought over, he signaled for another waitress.

“So who was this nigga that crashed the wedding?”

“Her ex. All I know is his name, Snake. They say he used to be a pimp.”

“Aiight, my man. Where can I reach you if I need you?”

Perry G, not wanting the meeting to end, took his time at retrieving a business card.

“I might have some work for you,” Phillip told him, then stood up. He took the business card and slipped it in his suit jacket. “Aiight, money, I gotta go get me a lap dance right quick.” And he left Perry G and Dougie sitting there at the table.

A little after midnight, several lap dances, some head, and a VIP fuck, Phillip and Dougie were coming out the club. As soon as they made it to the parking lot, Phillip smacked Dougie on the back of his head.

Dougie stopped dead in his tracks. “Man, what the fuck is your problem, yo?” Dougie swung at him and Phillip ducked.

“You said I was wasting my time, nigga. You gonna learn from me one day, boy!”

“What the fuck is yo’ crazy ass talking about?”

“I knew I saw that bitch before!”

“What bitch?”

“Remember when we was on the ticket with Carl Thomas? We had to give Snake some tickets because he was killin’ us in some Cee-Lo. Snake, man, think about it.”

They were getting in the car and Dougie was still trying to jog his memory bank.

Phillip, losing patience as always, yelled, “Keenan, man! Dino, Steve, Mark. The Hightower’s fool!”

“Oh, shit.” Dougie grinned as the memories crept back. “Me
and Keenan used to get mad pussy together. Get the fuck outta here! That’s my nigga.”

“Hell yeah. And you know I don’t believe in that muthafuckin’ coincidence shit. We caught bodies with them fuckin’ wild-ass Hightower niggas. They went from gangstas to pimps. I ain’t never saw no shit like that before. And only a nigga like him would crash a damn wedding. That ho must have been tearin’ that track up, for him to go do some shit like that. But hell, she is fine. You gotta see her.”

Dougie had to laugh at that one. But he stopped when Phillip pulled into an alleyway and turned the car off.

“Let’s handle this nigga.” Phillip turned stone-faced.

They both got out and Dougie pulled out his burner. Phillip stuck the key in the trunk lock and turned it. They both held the trunk closed and moved on opposite sides. Phillip nodded at Dougie and he stepped back with the burner aimed. Phillip let his hand go and the trunk eased open. Their victim was just lying there, balled up in a knot. Phillip chuckled when Dougie smacked him across the head with the gun.

Wes, the thief, let out a gut-wrenching moan. Phillip grabbed him by the collar and yanked him out the trunk. “Get yo’ little ass up!” He threw him onto the ground, after he told him to get up and kicked him in his ribs.

“Oowww,” he groaned and went into a coughing fit.

“Your life is only worth a set of five thousand dollar rims, nigga?” shouted Phillip as he grabbed the lug wrench out of the trunk. He kicked Wes again, causing him to roll over on his back. “I’ma teach you to keep your word, nigga.’ Cause you obviously forget who you was fuckin’ with.”

Phillip held the lug wrench up as if it were a stake and brought it down forcefully, driving it into his throat. His blood gushed out as if he had just struck a tiny oil well. Phillip ducked to his left, barely missing a splash of blood on his face. But it did get on his shoulder. “Fuck!” he spat as he grinned wickedly at his handiwork.
“I thought I could pull this off with precision.” He pulled the iron out and stood up.

Dougie threw him a towel and he ran it across the bloodstains on his suit. He then wiped off the lug wrench, wrapped the towel around it, and set it in the trunk.

“Yo, I don’ know what the fuck to think.” Kaylin was sitting on his mother’s back porch, showing Kajuan the mystery envelope that had the pictures in it.

“My gut is telling me that it’s not Snake,” Kajuan told him.

“Well, my gut is telling me who it is, but hold up.” Kaylin flipped open his celly.

“Where you at, yo?” It was Omar.

“I’m at my mom’s. What’s up?”

“We hit pay dirt. You wanna swing by the hospital and tell Tasha, or you want me to do it? That’s why I was asking where were you.”

“Can I get a name, nigga?”

“Jaden’s little brother, Rome.”

“Word?”

“Yeah. But that’s neither here nor there, baby.”

“Aiight, then. Real talk.”

“I’m out.”

Kaylin hung up with a smirk on his face. “That was O.”

“Yeah?”

“That was Jaden’s little brother who got at Trae.”

“Who the fuck is Jaden?” Kajuan wanted to know.

“A nigga we fucked with who stepped to Tasha when we was gone. Trae had somebody get at him.”

“Damn. Y’all niggas was wild, yo. Kill a nigga because he step to your woman. Whatever happened to the good ole days? The days when the focus was gettin’ money and if you had beef you used your fists.”

“Nigga, those are the gone ole days.”

“I see.”

“In any event, street justice has been served.” Kaylin flipped open his phone again. “Yeah.”

“Hey, baby.” Angel cooed in his ear.

“Red, what’s up?”

“Where are you?”

“At Mommy’s.”

“Marvin and Kyra are at the hospital with Tasha, they got in last night.”

“That’s love. I need to holla at Marv.”

“You’ve got company over here,” she said with excitement.

“Who?”

“You’re fam from Puerto Rico.”

“What family?”

“Who gave us the gold bars.”

Shit.
“Oh … that … family.”

Carmen was looking at Snake all dreamy-eyed as he rose up to leave. “When are you coming back?” Her tongue was practically hanging out of her mouth.

“I’ll call you later.” He flashed that slick grin at her and pulled out a wad of cash. He peeled off a few bills and put them gently in her hand. “Keep it tight, aiight?”

Carmen giggled. “Fo sho!”

Snake and his crew left the condo that he set Carmen up in and they piled into his uncle Dino’s Escalade. Dino had Bullet chauffeuring them around.

“Man, you hit that yet? She is open, dawg.” Bullet was acting as if he would if Snake didn’t want to.

“Nah. I don’t want her. It’s her sister I’m after. Not that little dumb bitch. She’s just an end piece to this puzzle. Why you want her? I’ll give you a deal on the ho.”

“Where we going?” Bullet ignored Snake’s last comment.

“Just drive, man. That hen dog got me feelin’ nice.”

“You decided if you was gonna put her on the track or not?” Dino asked.

“Nah, I’m still hashing out the details to everything.”

“Man, pull over. Let me and this nigga out,” Uncle Dino ordered.

Bullet pulled over. Everybody got quiet.

“What? Unc? What’s up?”

“Get the fuck out, that’s what’s up.”

“What I do?” sighed a confused Snake as he followed his uncle’s orders.

They both got out of the Escalade and began walking down the strip. Snake was loving Miami and he was ready to call it his home.

“Boy, I’m sick of you scheming on that bitch, Angel. What the fuck done happened to your mind, boy? Here you done put a bitch up in a plush-ass condo, giving her money, and you don’t know if you gonna put her ass on the track? I should fuck you up just on GP. You might as well hit the track yo’ damn self.”

“Unc, it ain’t even like that.”

“Fuck it ain’t! I swear that beat-down you got fucked your head up real bad.”

“Naw, Unc, she got me fucked up! No matter how long I was gone, she was supposed to wait. I don’t care if I was gone for forty years, she wasn’t supposed to get with the next nigga. And get pregnant and shit?”

“Well, she did, nigga, and that should tell you sumthin. And on top of that you didn’t even have that ho out on the track!”

“Hold up, Unc … hold up. You married with a wife and Aunt Jill never hit the track. Why can’t I marry and get a wife?”

“Fool!” His uncle pushed him. “You marry somebody that wants to marry you back. She obviously has moved on, Keenan. And I’m getting sick of you focusing on nothing but this bitch. Now you went as far as hooking up with her sister?” He gritted his teeth. “What the fuck is the matter with you?”

“Unc, you know how I left, man. We were engaged. I had to
dip. Now I’m back and I just wanted to see what’s up. I haven’t had the chance to talk to her in private. That’s all I need. I know she still love me. She thought I was dead, remember? Why can’t I just talk to her? What’s the big fuckin’ deal?”

Dino used his thumbs to massage his temples, thinking that this was a dumb muthafucka. And that he was right, that beat-down fucked his head up. The nigga was now insane, stuck on stupid. As they strolled down the strip, Snake was enjoying the warm Miami weather, the palm trees, the night sky, and the sounds of the city. Dino was quiet and thinking. Thinking about how could he help his nephew stop himself from self-destructing.

After a good ten minutes of silence, Dino said, “Look, nephew. I want you to listen to me. And I’m only gonna say it once. See if she’ll talk to you one on one. Don’t force her. If she gives you that, fine. Then ask her, what’s up? If she wit it, cool. But if she ain’t, I want you to back the fuck off. That’s an order. This shit is crazy. I don’t see any good coming out of this. Do you understand me? There’s a whole sea of bitches out here. You embarrassing the fuck outta your whole damn family. I don’t know why I’m wasting my breath for real. I see now that I’m going to have to fuck you up my damn self.”

The Escalade rolled up on them. “Yo, Dino, your phone, man.”

“Do you hear what I’m saying?”

“I hear you, Unc.”

Dino went over to his ride and grabbed his cell. “Yeah? He right here. Why the hell you calling him on my phone?” Dino barked. “Here. It’s your uncle Steve.”

“Steve?” Snake asked, surprised. Dino shoved the phone at him and headed back to his ride. “Uncle Steve, what’s up?”

“Boy, you got big people looking for you.” Steve was the oldest of all his father’s brothers.

“Big people like who? The only big people I know are the I, the R, and the S. And let’s not forget the F-E-D-S. So what’s up, Unc?”

“You ain’t never had no job, so how would you know about the
I, the R, and the S? And the feds, you down there doing sumthin you ain’t got no business doing?”

“Naw, Unc. I’m chilling. Just trying to get right again, that’s all.” He was hoping that his uncle Steve didn’t know about him moving dope.

“How many hoes you got?”

“Three right now.”

“Three? Aww, nigga, you are doing bad. You need to call this nigga back, right away, shit. He got money. Big money.”

“Who, Uncle Steve?” Snake was getting agitated at both of his uncles for trying to tell him how to do shit.

“Phillip Johnson.”

“Phillip Johnson?”

“Yeah, little P.J. and Dougie Johnson.”

“Aww, hell no! What that nigga callin’ me for? I know he need sumthin!” Snake laughed but was skeptical at the same time.

“I don’t know, boy, but with three hoes, maybe you can get a job. Get one for you and your stable of three,” his uncle cracked.

“I’ma make you eat those words, Unc.”

“Well, I hope so. Here, boy, now write this number down so you can call little P.J., the big music man,” he said proudly. “Even though I know it’s just a front. That boy can’t fool me.”

“Unc, everybody ain’t illegal.”

“Yeah. Uh-huh. Come on, boy, get a pencil. You runnin’ up my damn bill.”

A
lmost three months later, Tasha could drain the blood from the tube in Trae’s chest with her eyes closed. After the task was done she cleaned up the mess and was back by his side.

It was just after eight and all visitors were gone, the twins, Marvin, Kyra, Jaz, and Faheem. It was a very busy day. Even her cousin Stephon flew in from Cali.

She leaned in and planted long and tender kisses on Trae’s cheeks, the corner of his lip and forehead. She took his hand and held it against her stomach. Looking down at him, she said, “Trae, I am having a very, very hard time controlling my emotions today.” She leaned over and kissed his cheek again and rested her head on his shoulder. She moved his hand all over her stomach. “We need you, baby. I need you. I miss you so much. I miss talking to you. I miss hearing your voice. I miss your touch. Baby, I need you to come back to me now.” Her eyes were swelling up with tears.

“Seeing everybody today, especially Marvin and Kyra, tore me up. They remind me too much of our home, us living as a family, waking up in each other’s arms, taking care of our children together, and sitting together at the dinner table as a family. Baby, I miss that. I’m ready to take you home. Then the twins today kept wanting to climb on top of you and was bringing you their
toys, wanting you to play with them. They miss you so much. This is the first time they were this persistent about wanting your attention. They wore me out. I am so grateful for your parents, I swear, I wouldn’t be able to do this without them. I know they are fine with them, but, baby … we need to go home.” She was crying uncontrollably. “I’m … I’m sorry, baby.” She sniveled.

“I’m just so tired. I want to go home. And I swear, if I have another emotional and busy day like today, I’m going to have a nervous breakdown. Lord knows what I’m doing to our baby. The reason why it hasn’t happened yet is because of the baby, our son. That’s right. It’s another boy. You got your wish. I had the ultrasound yesterday. I already found a name. Caliph. It means leader, ruler. I wanted to wait and surprise you, but I’m hoping that this news will make you come back to us. I don’t want nothing to happen to our son. And the twins? You gotta see them, they are getting so big and bad. Your mother said that they are going to be bossy just like you. She said that they are already trying to tell her what to do. She also slipped in that I’m going to want to have a girl because there is going to be entirely too much testosterone in the house. I swear, you got everybody working with you. I told her I’m done. After this no more. Right, baby?”