Honor Thy Thug (19 page)

“Why are you so nosy?”

“Whatever.”

“I was waiting on your call. That’s why I’m still up,” he said.

“How sweet. You got my call, now take your ass to bed. Love you.” I kissed into the phone. “Give that to Kaeerah for me.”

“Whatever,” Faheem had the nerve to say, and then hung up on me.

I smiled, tucked the phone into my bag, and headed for the kitchen, glad that he was sounding a little more like himself.

“So, Miss Thing, what the hell is going on, and why are you talking about committing Kyra to some institution?”

“Kyra has been gone for almost two days. No phone calls, no texts, no note, nothing. I don’t have time to babysit her. I have three kids, Aisha and Trae. And you know that bitch Charli has been calling here. And he’s been to see her father a couple of times.”

“Her father?” Now, that was a shocker. “Why has he been going to see her father?” I passed her the blunt. She took a pull and passed it back.

“He said it’s business. They are working on this big business deal.” Tears were streaming down her cheeks. “He’s not home. He’s there now. I swear, Jaz, I’ma do something to that bitch. I just haven’t figured it out yet.”

I passed it back to her. She obviously needed it. She got up and fixed my tea.
But shit. She’s beginning to sound like me
. And it appeared that we both had the same problem. A bitch. But my problem I was going to kill. I wasn’t sure whether Tasha was thinking about taking such drastic measures. I was just hoping that she was just letting go of some steam. She set my cup of tea on the table. I took a sip. “Ewwwww. You got any honey?”

“Jaz, where do you think you’re at?” She went to the cabinet and came back with a honey bear.

“Thank you. Now, tell me about the fire. For real, I can’t even tell that y’all had one. Look at these beautiful floors! And that sofa . . . I love it.”

“Well, it wasn’t really a fire on the inside, that’s why. Just smoke and water damage. Because of the sprinkler system and fire-resistant insulation, the fire was contained to the outside for the most part.”

“For the most part my ass! You got all new stuff. I like new stuff.” I tried to look at the bright side. They had a new red leather sectional that was to die for. It could seat at least fourteen people comfortably. A huge, dumb ass flat screen on the wall. The kitchen was painted a bright blue with stainless steel appliances and decorated with black granite counter tops. The floors were a beautiful light gray wood that was very different. The house had a new look with the same drama. I snickered at the thought. Tasha looked at me as if to say, “What the fuck is so funny?” I switched up and asked, “Were you scared?”

“Girl . . .”

I listened intently and smoked away as Tasha told me what had happened that night. I was grateful that no one was hurt. That was a blessing. Thank goodness Aunt Marva was as nosy as she was. If she hadn’t spotted the guy lurking around outside, they would have been stuck inside and possibly sucked up into a flaming fire. We then sat in silence, each of us momentarily lost in thought, the only sounds were her occasional sniffs, me stirring my tea, and the faint hum of the freezer. The blunt was gone. I was fucked up.

We heard someone at the door, and we looked at each other.
Tasha started wiping her eyes and fixing herself up. I assumed she thought it was her husband coming in. I had a front-row seat for the fight. “Too late. You look like you were crying,” I told her. I thought she was going to get up and go running to the door, but she didn’t. She just sat there, and to our surprise, it wasn’t Trae. In walked Kyra. I looked her over and she had on this short ass Versace aqua dress that said easy access.

“Jaz! What are you doing here?” She kissed Tasha on the cheek and then came around the table to give me a hug.

“I came to check on you. You got Tasha worried half to death. You leave, don’t tell anyone where you are going. You don’t call nobody, no text, no nothing. Kyra, that ain’t right. Where were you?” I scolded her as if I was her mother.

“Awww. Tasha, I’m sorry.” She went back around the table to hug Tasha.

“Kyra, where were you? Why didn’t you call?” Tasha pushed her away. She was clearly agitated with our girl.

Kyra grabbed a chair and sat down next to Tasha. “I went to go see Rick.”

“Rick!” We both yelled at the same time.

Then Tasha said, “Bitch, you could have called, left a note or something. How could you up and leave your daughter like that?”

“Stop it! Stop yelling at me!” Kyra put both hands over her ears. “I know. I know. And I’m sorry, Tasha. He wasn’t returning my calls. I was trying to be patient, but my patience ran out. I had to go see him. I’m sorry.” She paused. “But shit, I’m grown. Y’all don’t ring my phone before you go see your man.” She looked at us sideways.

I threw up my hands and backed off, thinking that was the flip-personality shit Tasha was talking about. I knew Tasha was getting ready to dig into that ass.

“Kyra, you have a child here! Have you forgotten? A parent does not just up and leave to go to another state without making sure her responsibility is safe and secure. I’m thinking something happened to you. And when your daughter asked me where you were, I couldn’t even answer her. How hard is it to pick up your cell? Send a text? You don’t fuckin’ get up and leave for days without telling anybody! You just don’t do that!”

“I didn’t say anything because I knew you would try to talk me out of it, Tasha.”

“Kyra, you don’t know that. Your dumb ass could easily have said, ‘I’m going anyway.’ At least, then I wouldn’t be out looking for you and worried sick about you. That was so stupid of you, Kyra.”

“I know, I know.” Kyra started kissing her all over her face. “Can you forgive me? I won’t do that again.”

“Stop it, Kyra!” Tasha yelled while trying to push her away. But Kyra wouldn’t stop.

I couldn’t help but laugh, and then we all started laughing.

“So what happened? What did he say? Why did you go out there?” Tasha asked her.

“I needed some of that dick,” Kyra said nonchalantly.

“You what?” I had to be sure I’d heard her right.

“I needed some dick. Y’all forget, it’s been a long time for me.”

“You bitch! I’ma fuck your ass up!” Tasha said, laughing as she jumped out of her chair and dived on top of Kyra.

You talkin’ about Mr. Li opening my eyes to a whole new level of being in the game? I’d have to call that an understatement. In five days, I’d traveled on private jets to Mexico and Texas, and in two weeks, I’d be going to Singapore. I made a mental note to cross Texas off my relocation list.

Why? Because you don’t shit where you eat, and the Li organization had the state of Texas on lock. My job was to handle any business with the organization’s black clientele. I was now the black poster child for the Li organization. Wherever there was black clientele, they had to deal with me. My job was simply to collect money. And since it appeared to be all business people, and no block niggas, everything was cut clear and dry. I was told how much I was picking up, they would turn it over, no questions asked, no excuses. And I was picking up money by the shitload.

Throughout Mexico and Houston, the Li’s owned a string of
banks called the People’s Bank. What they were running through them wasn’t shared with me. I was overly anxious to find out what was happening in Singapore. They had me open.

I was assigned to a mentor named Kon Li, who I found out later was Charli’s cousin. After a few short hours, I saw how the whole situation was going to be to my advantage. One, I had Charli in my pocket. The bitch would do anything I asked. Two, Kon Li had loose lips. Three, he was fascinated with black people. The black that was portrayed in the rap industry, hood movies, and the media. Hell, he was the blackest Chinese dude I knew next to TV Johnny the Jeweler. But best believe he didn’t act or speak that way when he was around Mr. Li.

But from what I could gather, Kon was fucking up with the black people. At first, I didn’t know why. But when I saw how he thought he was Nino Brown from
New Jack City
, I knew that was where the trouble was. He was dealing with these black professionals as if they were niggas on the block. I saw exactly why they were replacing him.

“Dude,” Kon said through slurred speech. “I’m not stupid, you know. I can teach you a lot. I know they want you to replace me. But it’s okay. You know why? Because I will be getting a promotion. The Big boss is about to be even bigger. He’s about to fuck up the whole banking system. And I’m going to help him. We about to get paid, dawg!”

Banking system?
I poured him another drink. “So, I can come to you and get a loan or get some side work or what?”

“No doubt, bro!”

“School me. What I got to do?”

“Hold up. Let me holla at that chick over there. I’ll be right back.”

We were at one Li’s private clubs in Houston. There were only two other black brothers there besides myself and they were security. Needless to say, I didn’t see Kon for the rest of the night.

The last thing that blew my mind was that the Li organization had a ritual that consisted of having your finger cut and mixing your blood with that of your assigned mentor. That ritual was performed in front of two witnesses. My witnesses were Charli and an old head named Wong. They made a small slit at the tip of my finger and one on Kon Li’s. We pressed our fingers together, and the drops of blood dripped onto the document. The same document that I had to sign.

Right before that, Wong, who was not generous with words pulled me aside and said, “Sun Tzu’s
The Art of War
says, you never let your enemy know your strengths or your weaknesses.” And he walked away.

This was my sixth night in a row sitting up in the dark, in the family room, waiting for Trae to come home. For the last three days, our conversation was the same, him saying to me, “I’ll be home tonight.” But he would never show up. I didn’t know what the fuck he was doing or with whom, but I had a strong feeling it was that eggroll bitch. Hell, I didn’t even know where he was. But I did know that it was stressing the shit out of me.

My mind began to drift as I thought about everybody. Kyron was too quiet, which meant that he was up to something. Trina had been laying low. I still hadn’t reached my brother. I didn’t know if he was dead or alive. Angel was doing her thing running her husband’s record label. Kyra had lost her damned mind
chasing after Rick. It was as if in her mind, Marvin had never existed, which was scary. Jaz’s sneaky ass was up to something, even though I couldn’t put my finger on it.

I was getting sleepy, so I turned on the television. The house alarm chirped, and I hit the mute button. My heart began to race. My husband was home. Finally. I got up and headed for the front of the house. When I reached the living room, I stood still and focused to make sure it was him.

“Baby, why is it so dark in here? Come here!” He walked over to me and gave me a big hug and a fat kiss. “I missed you, girl.”

I missed you, too.
Of course, I didn’t tell him that, because I wanted him to know that I had an attitude. I looked him over for any signs or clues of infidelity. He was clean, smelling good, and dressed to the nines. He was suited and booted as if he had just stepped off a photo shoot for Armani.

“You waited up for Daddy?” He took off his suit jacket and placed it neatly over the back of the couch.

“I’ve been waiting up for six days. Do you even realize how long you’ve been gone?”

“Of course I do. I’ve been counting, too. And now Daddy is home. But I don’t feel the love. Where’s it at?”

He eased his hands down and palmed my ass cheeks. I tried to pry his fingers free.

“Tasha, you better stop acting crazy and act like you know. Where the love at?” He leaned in and sank his teeth into my jaw.

“Trae, no!”

“Aiight, then you better act like you know. Where the love at? A nigga been away for days from his pussy, and you’re trying to act crazy. You’re supposed to be all over me. Give me a kiss.” His hands were all over me.

I gave him a peck on the lips, and he went back for my jaw. “Okay, Trae. Damn.” I kissed him for real this time.

“That’s what I’m talking about. Now give me another one.”

I did. But this time, I melted in his arms.

“I love you, girl.”

I didn’t say anything as he backed me onto the couch. I held on to him as we fell backward.

“I missed you,” he kept saying as he passionately kissed my cheeks, lips, and neck. His fingers slid between my thighs, where two fingers entered me, came out, and went up to my clit. He tickled it lightly, slowly heightening the good feeling and taking me to . . . “Oh, baby, wait.” Trae stopped pleasuring me in mid-action and began to rise up off me.

“What?” I asked with slight panic in my voice as I grabbed at his shirt.

“Hold up now! Hold up! I got you.”

He went to two, big, shiny red shopping bags. He turned on the lamp. When he opened the first one, he reached in and pulled out a fly ass coal black, Crocodile Birkin handbag. That had to run him at least 50gs. I tried to act as if I wasn’t impressed but inside I was jumping up and down for joy. But when he opened the second bag and pulled out a heart-shaped box, I couldn’t help but blush. He set it on the coffee table and opened it. He took out what I knew was my favorite, a box of chocolate-covered strawberries.
Awwwww. So he
was
thinking about me.

“That’s right. I was thinking about my baby the whole time,” he said as if he’d read my mind. He came over to the couch and sat next to me.

“They’re probably melting.” I finally spoke, whispering.

“Perfect.” He placed a strawberry on my lips, smearing the
chocolate on them, then on my cheeks and neck. He put the strawberry in my mouth, and I nibbled it slowly. “Dayuum, baby, that’s what I’m talkin’ about.”

He pulled my nightshirt off and got another strawberry out of the box, and this time, he spread chocolate on the insides of my thighs and all over my breasts and nipples. He then placed the strawberry in my mouth, and as I ate it, he seductively licked and sucked the chocolate off. The sucking noise he made was making my pussy dripping wet. The next thing I knew, Trae was coming out of his pants as I lay there, legs spread wide open. His dick was so hard it was rising up and down, damn near jumping. As his body began to cover mine, I lifted one leg and put it on his shoulder. That’s right. I was ready to feel my husband’s big dick as far up in me as he could get it.