Payback Ain't Enough (13 page)

It turned out to be a good day. After Lisha drained a nigga, we both lay sprawled out in the bed breathing heavy and staring at the ceiling. She sat up and smiled at me. I smiled back, and then remembered her saying that her bitch would be back in an hour. I got up, and we both hit the bathroom. She jumped in the shower and I headed downstairs to get my clothes. As I was putting them on I heard the keys turning the lock to the front door.
Aww fuck!

In walked the chick who slapped Lisha on the ass earlier. Homegirl was about five foot six, Gabrielle Union-looking chick. She and Lisha could have passed for twins except Lisha had long hair. I wouldn’t mind fucking her, too.

She stepped into the house, looked at me half-dressed, noticed Lisha’s pile of clothes on the floor and asked, “What the fuck are you doing in my house?” She gave me a death stare. “Lisha, who the fuck is this, and why is this nigga in my house?” she yelled as she walked through the house looking for Lisha. She turned her attention back to me and asked, “Who the fuck are you?”

“I’m Dark. What’s up?” I said as I zipped up my jeans.

Lisha came rushing down the steps in her robe.

“Lisha, who the fuck is this? What the fuck is this black nigga doing in
my
house?”

“Chill out. He was just leaving.”

“What the fuck is going on?”

“This is Damon’s father, Tiffany. Calm down, damn.”

Damon’s father?

“Calm down? Calm down? Bitch, you got me fucked up!”

Her chick was so mad, tears were running down her cheeks.

“Dark, you need to leave,” Lisha told me.

“Yes, you better get the fuck out of here because I don’t give a fuck who he is. This is my fuckin’ house!” She went to the door and snatched it open. “How dare you bring your baby’s daddy up in my house when I’m not home.” She glared at Lisha.

“Hold up. Baby’s daddy?” Was I hearing this bitch right?

“Dark, thanks for stopping by. I’ll call you later.” Lisha had her hand on my chest and was pushing me toward the door. She was giving me that look that said go ahead, we’ll talk later.

“Hold up, Lisha. Who is Damon?”

“Lisha, you ain’t tell this nigga?” She looked from her to me and back to Lisha. “You fucked the nigga and didn’t have the decency to tell him?” Tiffany was screaming. She took off running for the stairs. I knew she was headed up to the bedroom to confirm that we had been fucking.

“Dark, go. Now. Please.”

“Not until you tell me who Damon is.”

She shoved me onto the porch. Tiffany was coming down the steps screaming, “You fucked this hoodlum raw?” I know this bitch didn’t go check the sheets and shit.

“He’s your son, Dark. His name is Damon, and he’s your
son. Now go! I promise we’ll talk later.” She slammed the door in my face.

I stood there stunned.
A son?
I knocked on the door again. I could hear them in there arguing.

“Get the fuck off of my door!” Tiffany screamed.

Damn.

CHAPTER NINE

I didn’t plan on finding Shan like this, shacked up with one of my main buyers. I imagined her having a nine to five, married to some government worker, not mixing with the likes of me and my kind.

I was still trippin’ over what she had stumbled up on. That girl always did have the strangest luck. I remembered one time when she found a package and gave it to Peanut, thus jump-starting his career of hustling. I supply the majority of dope to the city of Detroit. And if it had been anybody else I would have made it my business to put whoever up on who had their package. I know the feeling of taking “L.” But I damn sure wasn’t going to turn my fam into one of my customers.

Shan opened the door and let me in. “I bought a new car,” she announced, wearing a big Kool-Aid smile.

“You did what?”

“I traded the other one in. I couldn’t be riding around in
the same car with the big dent in the back. What if they are looking for the car?”

“Shan, I told you to lay low.”

“Nick, I was calling you. You never called back.”

“What else have you been buying?”

“Some clothes and a new dining room set.”

“Shan, you got to stop spending.”

“Okay, I will,” she reluctantly responded.

“I’m serious, Shan.”

“I heard you. What about the dope? If Briggen knew I had this shit in my house he’d kill me.” She sounded like a nervous child.

“I’m here to pick that up now.”

“How soon can you flip it?” she asked, carrying the heavy duffel bag into the living room.

“I meet with some people tomorrow night.”

“How much can I expect?”

“I’ll let you know in a few days. In the meantime, chill the fuck out.” I picked up the bag and threw it over my shoulder.

“Promise me you’ll keep this between me and you. Briggen
cannot
—and I mean
cannot
—find out about this.”

“I got you.”

No sooner than I got in my ride, my man was calling me to tell me that it was Cisco’s package that Shan stumbled upon. He assured me that Cisco had no idea who had it.

I’m standing in line, scratching my head, waiting to get on the phone because my sources had just told me that Nick had been
going in and out of my house and Shan had been spending money like it’s water.

“Yo, Briggen. My man Ace said you ain’t got to use that phone. Come see him and he gotchu.”

I looked at dude. I didn’t know him or his dude Ace from a can of paint. “I’m good, homie. Tell him I’m good. Gotta get my thoughts together while I’m waiting.”

“Aiight. I’ll tell Ace you turned down his offer.” He stepped away.

Damn right I turned it down. I didn’t need to be owing nobody shit. Especially muthafuckas I didn’t know.

After damn near half an hour I finally got a phone and dialed Shan. When she answered I said, “Hey, what’s up?”

“Baby, I miss you.”

“I miss you too. What’s going on? Everything alright?”

“Nothing is going on around here,” she said, sounding strange. She definitely wasn’t sounding like a bitch who missed her man. “What’s going on with you? Any word on when you coming home?”

“Rudy is trying to get another court date. He’s working on it. I should be out of here soon. So ain’t nothing going on?”

“Nothing, baby. Just missing you, that’s all.”

“Bullshit. Come see me right away.” I didn’t give a fuck that I was all the way in Miami.

“Come see you?” she stammered.

“Yeah, come see me. You was just bitchin’ about not being able to come see me; now I say come on and you offering resistance? You coming or not?”

Oh shit.
No, he did not just order me to come see him. He must have heard something. But… No, he couldn’t have. Fuckin’ bigmouth Nick! I knew Briggen. He knew if he got me in front of him he’d be able to get me to tell him everything.

“Shan! You coming or what?”

“When do you want me to come?”

“As soon as possible. Visits are seven days a week.”

“I don’t feel like dragging Anthony with me.”

“Get Keeta to keep him for a couple of days.”

“Okay, baby. I’ll get right on it.”

Click.

He hung up.

I had already called the holding facility there in Miami. They only allowed them four hours a month and one hour a day. I was not flying way to Miami by myself to sit on a visit for one measly hour to be interrogated. And leave my son? I don’t think so.

I knew Briggen would be calling back. He only hung up to get my blood boiling. Sure enough, fifteen minutes later, the phone rang.

“Shan, I want you down here as soon as possible.”

“Briggen, I said I was coming. You only hung up fifteen minutes ago.”

“When are you coming, Shan?”

“Call back in an hour. I need to make a reservation, hotel, babysitter, all of that, Briggen. When I was trying to see you, you didn’t want me to come. It wasn’t necessary, you told me. Now all of a sudden it’s urgent.”

“You damn right it’s urgent. So why are you bullshittin’ around?”

“I’m not bullshittin’, Briggen. Anthony’s crying, I gotta go.” I hung up before he could say another word. I’m a grown-ass woman and he ain’t my muthafuckin’ daddy.

As I was online going through the motions of finding a travel agency and looking for flights and hotel deals, just doing what I was told, it hit me. Something came over me like I was possessed by the spirit of my girl Brianna and her
fuck it
attitude. I was fed up with second-guessing myself and putting everyone else before me. I had been doing that shit since high school. I was fed up with always doing everything Briggen wanted me to do and when he wanted me to do it. Even if I didn’t feel like it. But not this time. I was not up for going to Miami for no damn one-hour visit. For what? For him to lie to my face about how he was one-hundred percent legit or lie about how he didn’t fuck with Mia no more? Fuck that! I had a shitload of money stashed in my garage, and it was mine, all mine. And once Nick moved that other dope I would have another shitload of money coming in. So I decided, “Fuck it!” I knew I could get Miss Carrol who ran the day care to keep Anthony. She loved him to death. I had it all mapped out. I was going shopping, getting my hair done, and then I was packing my bag and going to Vegas.

FIVE DAYS LATER
…

I was on pins and needles as I waited for the guards to tell me I had a visit. But Shan’s ass never bothered to show up, which only
confirmed the rumors my sources had been pullin’ my ear to. On top of that, every time I dialed her number it would shoot straight to voicemail. Her ass thinks she slick, but I ain’t gonna sweat it because I told her once they straightened out those old warrants I would be out and she and I would be face to face.

And here I was, fresh out, back on the street and locked out of my own damn house. Shan was still refusing to answer her phone, and I hadn’t heard from Keeta. My cell was in the house and I just wanted to get inside.

I went next door to my neighbor’s house and asked to use their phone. I called Keeta, and, of course, she was running the streets. I told her to run her ass by her house and get my keys that I had stashed there.

“Boy, what else you stashed in my house without me knowing?”

“Just bring me my damn keys so that I can get inside,” I told her and hung up. I thanked Billy, my neighbor, and went back and sat on my front porch.

Shan’s sudden behavior had definitely raised a red flag. I had no clue what she was up to, and I didn’t even have a clue as to where she was. I was trying to figure out why she didn’t tell Keeta where she was going and why she wasn’t answering her phone. The more I thought about her, the more I started buggin’. What if someone kidnapped her and my son? I damn sure didn’t want to get the fucking pigs involved. This was not like her. On top of that, I’d been hearing that Nick had been over here several times. What if she was with him? My mind was swimming in the questions that I had no answers to. I sat on my porch ready to lose it.

Finally Keeta pulled up, jumping the curb, damn near missing
my fence by a thread. I stood up and waited for her to get out of the car.

“What’s up, jailbird?” she teased me.

“Just give me my damn keys, Keeta. You haven’t heard from Shan at all?”

“Not at all, I already told you that.” She came up on the porch and gave me my keys.

“I got it from here,” I told her. I needed to get inside and focus.

“You don’t need my help?”

“I said I’m good, Keeta.”

“Damn, you don’t have to snap. I guess you don’t need to know that Miss Carrol has the baby. Oh, that’s right! You don’t need me. I’m outta here.” She turned and started for the stairs pulling out her phone and went to dialing.

“When did you find that out?” Miss Carrol had been a friend of our family’s ever since I could remember. She had been helping with the running of the day care since it opened.

“On my way over here.” I followed behind her bombarding her with questions. She held up her finger to shut me up. “Miss Carrol, hi. This is Keeta again. Anthony’s father just made it to the house. He wants to talk to you.”

She handed me the phone. “Hello, Miss Carrol.” I was glad to know that my son was fine.

“Hi, baby. Your li’l man is fine. I don’t have a problem keeping him for another two days until his mama comes back. Y’all know he’s a good baby.”

“I know. But I’m just getting back. Have you talked to his mother today?”

“She calls every day. She’s in Vegas winning all types of money! That girl got good luck.”

“I need to come pick up my son. I’ll be there in a half hour.”