I wasn’t trying to #2
This wasn't me. I didn't second-guess myself.
I didn't hesitate. I made a decision and I moved on it.
But this... this felt different. This felt like if I opened that phone, if I saw something I didn't want to see, something would shift and I wouldn't be able to control it anymore. I didn’t know what this feeling was, but having this girl in my bed at night, this shit was damn near clouding my better judgement.
Fuck it.
I unlocked the phone. Her passcode was easy and she’d given it to me with no fight when we got to the compound. She must have thought what I was trying to convince myself damn self of. And that’s that I wouldn’t go through her phone.
I went straight to her messages.
Recent conversations. Her aunt. Her friends Nyla and River. Her father. And then... this Savion nigga.
I clicked on his thread.
The last message from her was from yesterday. While she'd been in my office, right after she’d been on the phone with her aunt.
Tatti: I've been thinking about it and I need to be honest with you. We're not compatible and I don't want to waste any more time leading you on. It's not fair to either of us. I'm sorry. Don’t reach out to me again. Just let it be over.
After that, it was wall-to-wall messages from him.
"What? Tatti come on"
"You can't be serious right now"
"Call me please"
"I love you"
"I love you and you know I do"
"Where are you?"
"Why won't you answer?"
"Your family said you went on a trip but where are you really?"
"I'm worried about you"
"Just call me back"
"Tatti please"
"I don't understand what I did wrong"
"If it's another nigga just tell me"
"I can fix this"
"Whatever this is we can work through it"
"Please just talk to me"
A hundred texts. Maybe more. All of them from a nigga who was begging. Pleading. Professing love like that was going to change anything.
My jaw tightened.
My whole body went tight. I knew that she cut him off by force and not by choice. I knew that if she had things her way, she’d probably still be with this nigga, instead of being forced to be here. That’s the part that I ain’t want to think about.
I sat there staring at those messages and felt something dark move through me. Something that wasn't just anger. Something that was possessive and territorial and so far outside my control that it scared me.
She'd ended it with him. She'd told him they weren't compatible. She'd made a choice.
But he was still trying.
He was still texting her. Still calling her. Still acting like he had a claim on her.
Still acting like he had a chance.
I set the phone down and stood up from my desk. Walked to the window and looked out at the compound. Tried to get my breathing back under control.
This nigga Savion Greyson had no idea what he'd just awaken in me. The nigga needed to get some business about his damn self and forget my wife.
No idea that every single one of those texts was a mistake. That every time he typed her name, he was signing his own death wish.
And the worst part? The thing that made this so much worse?
I couldn't figure out why I was so angry. I had even called the damn girl my wife in my head.
I knew exactly why. I just couldn't admit it.
Because admitting it meant admitting that I'd caught feelings for a woman I'd forced into my life. That I was jealous of a bum-ass personal trainer who couldn't even understand when a woman was done with him. That I was willing to hurt somebody over her. Was I that damn crazy?
Hell yeah. And I knew it too.
I didn't catch feelings.
I didn't do jealousy.
Kaseem Carter controlled everything and everyone around him.
Except her.
She was the one thing in my world that I couldn't control.
And instead of that pissing me off like it should have, it was making me want to claim her in every way possible.
The fact that I knew she was only here because she was forced, that shit made me want to break her down and have her here willing.
Now, my first order of business was to make sure every nigga in Dallas knew she was MINE. Make sure nobody ever thought twice about reaching out to her again.
I picked my phone up and called Mars.
"Get the truck ready," I said. "We're making a run."
"Where we headed? What about the drop?”
"Namier is there, it’ll be fine. I gotta go to Greyson Fitness. We got some business with the owner."
I hung up and looked back at Tatti's phone on my desk.
Then I looked toward the door that led to the hallway. Toward my bedroom where she was still sleeping. Still peaceful.
By the end of today, any nigga in the area would know what happened to a man who couldn't take a hint.
—
Greyson Fitness was packed for a weekday morning. The kind of gym where niggas came to show off more than actually work out. Mirrors everywhere. Loud music. People flexing and posing instead of grinding. This was a damn content building if you asked me.
I walked in with Mars right behind me. Neither of us said a word. We just moved through the space like we owned it, and people instinctively moved out of the way. When I walked into a room, the air shifted and muthafuckas could feel in their spirit that I wasn’t a nigga to fuck with.
I spotted him on the other side of the gym.
Savion Greyson. Personal trainer. The nigga who thought he had a claim on MY bitch and couldn’t get the message that he needed to move around.
I knew from looking at him that this had to be a family establishment and that a nigga like him hadn’t built nothing from the ground up.
He was with a woman. Tall. Light-skinned. In gym clothes that showed off her body. He was walking beside her, talking loud enough that everybody could hear him, the way niggas do when they want attention and want to be seen. Lame shit.
As they got closer to the exit, he reached back and slapped her ass hard. This shit threw me for a loop. Cause I knew damn well this wasn’t the same nigga in them text begging like Keith Sweat.
"Can't wait to work you out again," he said, laughing like he was the funniest nigga alive. "Real soon."
She giggled and walked out. And that's when I knew exactly what kind of nigga I was dealing with.
I stepped directly into his path.
"Yo," I said. Just one word. Calm. But the energy around me shifted the whole gym.
He looked up, saw me, and his face went confused. He didn't know me. That was about to change.
"You good?" he asked, like I was just some random nigga in his way.
"That your girl?" I nodded toward where the woman had just walked out.
He laughed like I’d told a fuckin joke. Actually laughed. "One of 'em," he said, puffing his chest out. "Why? You interested?"
I smirked. Just a small one. The kind that said he had no idea what was about to happen.
"Nah," I said. "I'm good. But you need to stay the fuck away from Tattiana and don't text her phone again, lame ass nigga."
The smile dropped off his face. "Who the fuck are you?"
I stepped closer. Close enough that he had to look up at me.
"Her husband," I said.
For a second he just stared at me like I was speaking another language. Then he started laughing again. Like it was a joke. Like I was playing.
That was his mistake.
“Aye bruh. Get the fuck out of here talking crazy. Her husband? Since when and I’ve been with her every other day for the past five to six months.
Nigga, you trippin and the last thing ima do is leave that one alone.
Maybe I can give you another one of my hoes, since you that pressed and that hard up for some pussy that you’d show up at my fuckin establishment. ”
I smiled without responding, and the nigga looked at me like I was crazy.
He ain’t even know the half. I looked back at Mars and smiled, I had to see if he’d heard this nigga.
Mars chuckled and shook his head. Without notice, I grabbed him by the back of his neck, taking his ass to the ground.
I beat his ass across the floor til we worked our way near the equipment.
He was trying to fight back, but his big ass was too slow for the punches that I kept throwing.
He did all that damn training and working out for nothing.
I slammed his face into the nearest weight rack. The sound echoed through the whole gym. Metal on bone. His nose leaked on impact.
"What the—" he tried to say but I didn't let him finish.
I dove on his ass again, and went back to work.
Not wild. Structured. Every punch had a purpose.
I broke his nose. Felt the bone crunch under my fist while at the same time, I split his lip.
Knocked out two teeth on the bottom row.
Left them on the gym floor. I don’t know what had gotten into me, but from the moment I saw all them text messages.
I knew that I was gone fuck him up today.
The whole gym watched. Nobody moved to help him. Nobody called security cause they was too damn scared that they’d be next. They just watched a man get dismantled for disrespecting the wrong nigga, about the wrong woman.
I grabbed his jaw and made him look at me while blood poured down his face.
"How you gonna smile in bitches' faces now?" I asked.
He tried to swing back but Mars caught his arm and twisted it until he dropped.
I landed two more clean shots. One to his ribs. One to his jaw.
Then I stepped back and smooth my shirt back down. The sight of this fuck nigga disgusted me.
He was on his knees, bleeding, broken, barely able to breathe.
"She told you she was done," I said, my voice calm like I hadn't just destroyed him.
"She told you not to reach out again. And you didn't listen.
" I paused. "Now listen to this — if I see one more text from you.
If I hear you even said her name to another nigga.
If you so much as drive past her house or anywhere you know she used to be, I'm gonna end you. And it won't be quick."