Chapter 8
The fact that Tattiana really waited near Zaire’s bushes in the night like a damn stalker, all so she could get taken to Mallory. That shit was crazy, rather she knew it or not. Namier looked at Tatti standing there making demands. He leaned over close enough that only I could hear him.
“What you gone do now? You ain’t gone be able to make her go home.
” he asked, his voice low, watching me like he needed to know if his big brother had a plan or if I was about to move off pure rage.
Today was the day that I was liable to do some crazy shit just off the strength that I’ve been feeling played with all day.
“I ain’t got a choice but to take her ass with me,” I said, keeping my voice even, even though everything in me was tight enough to snap.
“If I don’t go see what this bitch Mallory want, it’s gonna turn into a bigger problem than it already is.
I’m finna see what the fuck she came looking for, then I’m gonna deal with her accordingly so I can handle my wife and get to the bottom of the shit that happened earlier. ”
Namier shook his head and let out a long breath. He already knew that the night wasn’t nearly over.
I turned to Tatti and told her to come on. I said it stern and dry.
I wasn’t in the mood to soften nothing for her right now, not after everything that had already happened.
Especially not after finding out my marriage had a hole in it big enough to make us sink.
I was really disappointed in her ass right now, and here she was, acting like I owed her something.
She’d demanded that I take her to this bitch.
My dumb ass was going along with her demands too.
She got in the car without arguing, and I drove around the property until we hit the little house near the back where Sam had Mallory stashed.
“You really just trying to take the heat off yourself right now,” I told Tatti while I parked, my eyes locked straight ahead because I couldn’t look at her and keep my composure at the same time.
“Soon as we get home, you got some explaining to do. And the shit better make sense, cause right now I don’t even know who the fuck I married. ”
She didn’t respond. Just kept her eyes out the window. She was bouncing her legs in anticipation and I knew she was pissed off at what was going on.
After I cut the engine, we all walked in together. It was me first, Tatti behind me, Namier ass was in the back like he had somewhere better to be.
As soon as we walked inside, Mallory was tied to a chair in the middle of the room.
The second I saw how she was tied up, I knew Sam had rushed the job.
That rope looked thin as hell, barely wrapped around her wrists, the kind of tie job a nigga does when he ain’t thinking straight cause he’s moving fast under pressure.
“Nigga, I know you ain’t tie this bitch up with no damn shoestrings,” Namier said, holding his temple like the sight of it physically stressed him out.”
You know damn well she can burst out that shit.”
I cut Namier a look that told him now wasn’t the time for that. This wasn’t the time for him to be a comedian.
Sam stepped forward. “That’s all we had lying around on such short notice,” he said. “Wasn’t expecting to have to apprehend nobody tonight. So I did what I could with what I had on me. I can promise you that it’s secure.”
“Wait outside,” I told Sam. Tired of looking at his damn face too. “Stay close though.”
Sam nodded and stepped out, closing the door behind him.
Tatti stood behind me, looking over my shoulder at Mallory with a level of disgust on her face that told me she was two seconds from doing something I’d have to clean up.
“Take the tape off this hoe mouth,” she said.
“I need to know what the fuck she came here looking for so I can give it to her and be done with this shit. She’s lucky as hell I couldn’t get in that safe, she don’t even know it.
” Tatti barked through clinched teeth. She was itching to make an example out of Mallory, again.
Mallory was already moving in that chair, twisting her wrists against that thin rope, trying to work herself loose before I even got to her.
I reached down and ripped the tape off her mouth and she went in immediately, like she’d been sitting there for the last couple hours building up everything she wanted to say.
“Kaseem, are you serious right now?” Mallory barked, her voice loud and full of that same attitude she always carried like a nigga owed her something.
“You really had me hemmed up like I’m some bum breaking onto your property?
You really got me tied up to a damn chair like I’m a criminal?
You lost your whole rabbit ass mind, nigga. ”
“I mean, hell yeah, I do,” I said, staring her down.
“That’s exactly how you looked. Like a bum breaking onto my property, trying to climb gates and shit.
What the fuck do you want, Mallory? Last time I saw you, I made it clear that I wasn’t on that no more, that I don’t fuck with you.
You watched me bring a whole other bitch home and kick you out my house. ”
Tatti elbowed me hard in my side.
“I mean, another woman home,” I corrected myself, “The woman who’s now my wife, so we really no longer have business or dealings.
What you need? And who the fuck were you calling while you were sitting at my gate?
What, you tryna set me up or some shit?” I asked, and paranoia was sitting heavy behind every word because none of this was adding up in my head.
Mallory never just popped up at my shit.
She knew better. Then the fact that she’d been circling my gate, making calls, trying every angle to get in, that told me she had something up her sleeve and I needed to hear what the fuck it was.
Mallory lied straight to my face and told me she wasn’t talking to nobody.
I turned and called out for Sam. He came back in and I made him give me her phone, the one he’d confiscated when he grabbed her off the property. He handed it over.
“If you lying to me right now,” I told her, holding that phone up, “I’m gonna blow your whole shit back. Cause the last thing I need in my life is a bitter bitch trying to set me up over some shit that already ended. Give me the code.”
She sat there tight lipped, jaw locked, staring at me like she thought I was playing.
I wasn’t playing.
I grabbed her face rough and held the phone up to unlock it with her own Face ID, and the second that screen opened up I started scrolling through her call log. I saw calls going out to somebody saved as Big Sis. Saw a few calls to businesses earlier in the day too, numbers I didn’t recognize.
I called the Big Sis number back. That’s was the number she’d called last and most frequently. I know how hoes love to save numbers and change the names. I wasn’t crazy at all.
A woman answered almost immediately, her voice full of concern. “Hey sis. You okay? Are you still at that nigga crib?”
I hung up and powered the phone all the way off.
Tatti walked around from behind me and bent down so she was face to face with Mallory, close enough that I could feel the heat coming off her before she even opened her mouth.
“Fuck the small talk,” Tatti said, her voice flat and dangerous in a way that made even me take a half step back. “What the fuck do you want? Why are you on my property, bitch? Did you forget how my fist felt against your face already? What’s up?”
Mallory looked between the both of us and laughed, this dry, ugly ass laugh that told me she thought she had the upper hand in this room somehow.
“This is comical and I WISH YOU WOULD TOUCH ME AGAIN,” Mallory said, looking at me instead of Tatti.
“Kaseem, get your wild animal. She likes to catch people off guard when they not on even playing fields. She knows she can’t fight me fair.
” She turned her attention back to Tatti, tilting her head like she was proud of whatever she was about to say.
“I’m here because this is where the father of my unborn baby lives, and I needed to come give him the good news. ”
Tatti’s mouth dropped open.
Namier yelled out, “Hell nah!” from the corner of the room.
And me, I gasped, actual air leaving my chest like somebody had reached in and squeezed everything out of me at once. This bitch was a fuckin lie.
Tatti recovered fast though. Faster than I did.
“Bitch, that’s the oldest lie in the book,” Tatti snapped, stepping even closer to her. “Come again. My nigga ain’t got yo slow, delusional ass pregnant. What the fuck do you really want, before I beat your ass. Again!”
I stood there puzzled, my chest getting tight in a way I ain’t expect it to, deep down praying this whole thing was some lie Mallory cooked up out of desperation because she couldn’t stand watching me move on with life. By now, everybody knew I was a married man.
“News?” I said, my voice coming out rough as hell.
“You know I never fucked you raw, Mallory. What do you want, man? I’m happily married.
” I damn near lied and had to catch myself.
I wasn’t happy at all with Tatti’s ass today.
“Well, shit, I’m married, and I can’t fuck with you no more.
This baby shit ain’t gone work on me. I ain’t no nasty dick ass nigga that be fucking bitches who don’t belong to me without a rubber. ”
Mallory tilted her head and looked at me like she was disappointed I didn’t remember, like she’d been waiting on this exact moment to lay it all out.