Chapter 9 #2
She chuckled, momentarily forgetting she was trying to be mad at me. “You gonna get me one of the cropped ones that the bartender wears?” She seemed too excited for my liking.
“Yeah, but you can only wear that shit in my presence.”
“Ay, man, I don’t wanna hear that. Cake when you get to the crib. Can we handle this business while we here?” Reminisce’s disgruntled ass butted in.
Caya laughed and so did I. “Hey to you too, Reminisce.”
“What’s up besides the fact that you turning my brother into a simp.”
She laughed, and he did as well, while I grilled him. I wasn’t no fucking simp… well for her I might be but I wasn’t about to volunteer that much.
She and I hung up a few minutes later. My brother grinned as soon as I set the phone down.
“What, man?”
“You. That’s what. You done fell your goofy ass in love.” He made a heart with his hands. “You talked all that shit about me, but now you see.”
I didn’t respond at first. Instead, I shrugged his statement off. Maybe he was right, but either way it went it was what it was. “It is what it is.”
He had a knowing smile, one I wouldn’t refute. Instead I moved the mouse to see if the program I was using had finished sifting through the tapes. It had, so I focused my attention, watching camera eighteen closely, using seventeen as a spatial reference.
My brother stood behind me, also studying the video. We were about two minutes in when I saw it… not it, but her. She was in the corner, but I knew that lopsided jaguar tattoo from anywhere. At that exact moment, my office phone started to ring.
I looked from the footage to the phone before I reached for it and answered. “Yeah.”
“Hey, boss. It’s about one of the dancers.
Juicy hasn’t been in. She was a no call, no show this whole week.
When I called the number I had on her, a restaurant answered.
So it wasn’t her real number.” Boe’s voice filled my eardrum as I watched the clear dancer heel hit spaces near the camera before ultimately hitting it.
“Aight. Replace her for her set…indefinitely.”
“Uh, okay.”
Once I hung up the phone, my brother was talking. “One of your dancers fucked that camera up.”
“Nah. I know exactly who that is. It’s Juicy. I know that crooked ass jaguar tattoo from anywhere.”
“Then I’ll go grab her ass. Gimme her personnel file.” He was on his feet within seconds.
“Nah. I apparently don’t know shit about shorty. The number in her file ain’t right.”
“What, she isn’t here?” he asked, confusion sweeping his features.
“Nah, that was just Boe. She said Juicy has been a no show for the last week.”
“Around the time you got shot, right?” he asked.
The realization of that coincidence had me thinking. He was right, then somehow it all made sense in my mind. Had she been trying to set me up this whole time? Did she know who shot me?
“We don’t know if the two instances are related but let’s assume they are. You wouldn’t be the first gentleman’s club owner who got set up by one of his dancers. Shit, look at Dollar Bill .”
“Fool, Dollar Bill didn’t get set up by no dancer.” With all the seriousness going on, I couldn’t help but laugh at his stupid ass.
“So they want us to think. You mean to tell me everything went bad the night Diamond got fed up? Hell nah. I told you to keep your eyes peeled, lil bro.”
“My eyes are peeled but you need to stop watching that fucking movie because your paranoid ass is seeing shit that didn’t happen with every new watch.”
He shrugged like I wasn’t making sense, but he knew I was right. “Lemme get the file, Rennix. I don’t need you anywhere near it, especially since we both know you aren’t taking those meds like they told you to.”
He had me there, so I gave him the file instead of telling him he was wrong.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Caya’s hand on my shoulders interrupted my thoughts.
I couldn’t help but ponder the bullshit with Juicy, because if that shit was true then she had ample time to set me up.
My issue in every game I was in was that I contemplated motives on some psychological shit, wondering why people did the things they did. It all bothered me.
“I’m just in my head. Dinner was good for a motherfucker who hates cooking.”
“Of course you thought it was good, Rennix. There was cheese everywhere. Now tell me what’s bothering you.”
I pulled her around on my lap, so I could lay flat on the bed. That shit hurt, but it wasn’t too much.
“Did you take your pain meds?” she questioned, reaching above me to move pillows behind my head for me to lay on.
“Nah, I’m good without them.”
“Rennix. You’re straining yourself—” she started.
“Yo, you wanna hear what I’m thinking about or be my nurse, Cay? I guarantee I’m not about to take those pills, so we’ll be arguing about them all night.”
Her expression hardened, but she nodded for me to continue.
“Remember I got the footage for the camera at the club? Today I watched it. Juicy fucked the camera up. Then Reminisce said something that made me think. What if my shooting and the attempted robbery at the club wasn’t a coincidence?”
She looked at me for a moment. “Well, did you ask her?”
“Nope, because when I got there today Boa let me know she hadn’t been there anytime this week.”
“Since you got shot. So what are you gonna do about that?”
“Rem claimed that the address in her file wasn’t real. I’ma probably do a deep dive in the morning bec—” I started, but she interrupted.
“When she booked on my site, she put a billing address for her card. I don’t know if that helps.” She had her phone in her hand, swiping through while my hands gripped her hips. It had been about a week since I was between her legs and boy was I missing home.
“Here it is.” She turned the phone around. The information on the screen was nothing close to anything I had. Who the fuck was Latonya Brows?
“Send me a screenshot of that.”
“Already did,” she responded, still looking at her phone.
As soon as I was finished, I dropped my phone and started caressing her skin. She was so fucking soft that at first feel I assumed she was delicate but baby was far from it.
“Didn’t we just establish you weren’t taking your meds? Why would I even allow yo?—”
“Yeen gotta allow shit.” I tucked my bottom lip under my teeth, allowing my hand to go from her hip to the space under her gown I knew would drive me insane. She had on underwear today, but I didn’t give a fuck. Those motherfuckers were getting pushed right to the side.
“Rennix.”
“Shh. Just let me feel something, Cay.” I felt myself begging, fingertips digging into her flesh.
“Fine.” She acted reluctant but eased backward to free me from my sweats.
My shit was standing at attention, waiting on her to come down on this motherfucker.
For a moment, she hovered, forcing her underwear to the side, then she eased down on me.
It felt like she was taking me home, like I hadn’t been inside her in forever.
She was full, head back and body losing itself when I gripped her hips and she started riding me slowly to a beat only she knew in her head. Whatever it was had her hips brushing against me while she hummed through the words, hands locked in mine.
The ecstasy I saw in her expression had me ready to cum, but the need for her to get hers off first had me holding it.
Shit was killing me too because Caya fit me to perfection.
Body holding me hostage snugly because inside her was where I belonged.
I knew she was on the brink from the way her body tensed when I leaned forward, kissing her flesh.
“You gonna fuck us both up if you don’t slow down,” I warned, feeling the familiar euphoric high taking over my own being.
I began to slam into her from the bottom, controlling everything she felt while threatening to send myself over the edge as well.
“Cum with me baby, please,” she begged, her body pulling the nut of me without my permission. Everything about this woman owned me because at her insistence, we came together, her so out of breath that she collapsed against me.
“Are you okay?” she asked after finally finding her breath.
“Yeah, don’t ask me that shit no more. I’m straight. You’re the one who needed a minute. I told you the longer you made me wait, the worse this was about to be.”
She laughed. “You should still be waiting. You still have stitches.”
“Those stitches didn’t stop anything.”
She didn’t respond but instead snuggled closer to me.
“What are you thinking about?” I found myself asking that corny shit because I really did wanna know what was on her mind.
“Something my therapist said. She said you’re not supposed to find or put your home in others, that your foundation within yourself has to be enough for home to be within.”
“I disagree. Because if you can’t put your home in who you lay next to, then what he fuck you lying next to them for?”
She lifted her head, staring at me. “So, it’s okay if my home is in you?”
“Hell yeah, as long as you know mine is in you. It’s a matter of belonging and knowing who and what is for you.”
She giggled. “Are you sure you have never done this before?”
“Done what before?”
“Been in a relationship. You say all of the right things, Rennix, and God, you make me feel…” Her sentence trailed off. “Are you sure?”
“Positive, but for the right motherfucker you do things differently.”
She nodded, chin damn near stabbing me in my chest. “Well thank you for doing things differently. It’s appreciated.”
“It better be. Now stop catching them fucking attitudes with me.”
“Stop giving me reasons to.”
“Aight. You got that.”
A giggle escaped her lips as she leaned down and pressed them against mine.
I was almost off to sleep when I heard my phone vibrate against the nightstand. She was already asleep, so I maneuvered to grab the phone without waking her. When I finally got it, I answered. At this time of night it had to be my brother.