~~~Chapter 30~~~
“Baby, wake up.”
My eyes gradually opened, as I felt Malice shaking my shoulder, while I was laying in bed. “Hmm?”
“Damn, girl. You must’ve been tired as fuck. It’s after midnight. I didn’t think a nap would last this long.”
I weakly smiled. “I know.”
Standing over me, he frowned. “What’s wrong?”
My eyes wandered around. “What made you ask that?”
“Cause. It’s written all over your face. It looks like something is making you uncomfortable.”
I gulped, before sitting up, and taking a deep breath. “I gotta ask you something.”
He furrowed his brows. “What’s up?”
I paused, as I thought about it, before scooting out of bed. “Come on. Let’s go to the bathroom.”
With no questions, he followed me into our spacious bathroom, where I immediately opened the glass door to the separate shower, and turned the water on.
“Okay,” I sighed again. “Zae just called me from a random number, claiming that…you had him shot, and killed…and killed his friend.”
Standing there, Malice tucked his lips into his mouth, but said nothing.
“Hello?” I bucked my eyes.
“What chu want me to say, Jaylah?” He opened his hands.
For a moment, my voice was caught in my throat. “But why?” I helplessly cried.
He shrugged. “Street shit.”
“Oh, wow.” I shook my head, while tears continued to fall.
He stood staring at me, with a stoic expression.
I sniffed. “So, you aint got nothing else to say?”
He frowned. “I’m trying to figure out what any of that got to do with you and me.”
“I…I was cool with Claro. He would sit at my table and eat my food. I bought his kids Christmas gifts. I cried when he died.”
He furrowed his brows. “My condolences, then.”
I cynically laughed. “Are you fucking serious?”
“Yeah. I am.”
“So, are you that cold-hearted?”
He exhaled. “When it comes to the streets…I’m Malice, Jaylah.
I’ve told you that a thousand times before.
I aint gotta boast about nothing I’ve done.
Because it’s nothing to be proud of. But it’s who I am.
It’s who I have to be. It’s the reason I keep telling you not to sweat that shit with Paisley and her people.
Who do you think they used to call when shit was getting real?
That’s why I know that some bruised egos is forcing them niggas to write a check their asses can’t cash. ”
“So, so, what am I supposed to do now?” I sniveled.
He squinted. “What do you mean by that?”
“I’m saying, I’m saying—”
“You saying what? I thought that we already had this talk. It’s us and nobody else.
That’s including your lame, soon to be dead ex.
Now, I get that you feel a way about his friend.
I won’t fault you for that. But that wasn’t about you, baby.
Those niggas put on capes for the next man, after that man tried to run off with several keys.
So, it played out how it did. Wish ya people would’ve made better decisions.
And ya ex…I hate that they didn’t aim for the head. ”
My eyes brightened, as several things hit me all at once, like a freight train.
“So, again, what do you mean by what do you do now? Cause this shit done been cemented. Aint no breaking up. Aint no running. We here. And this is what it’s gonna be.
” He grabbed the waistband on my pants, and pulled me closer.
“We a family, and whatever is going on in the world aint got shit to do with this.” He palmed my stomach.
“And I’ll kill anything and anybody who tries to interfere with it. ”
***
Laying on my side in bed, I tried my best to play possum. Khari was in her room with Ms. Shelia, and Malice was in bed with me, but I’d closed my eyes, pretending to drift off, while I tried to process everything.
Never in a million years did I think that I’d be sharing a bed with Claro's killer.
Especially not after attending his funeral, watching his mama have to be peeled off the floor, as she cried from the depths of her soul.
That cry had haunted me for weeks after, and to know that my man was responsible… was the hardest pill to swallow.
And now, there I was, once again full of baby. His baby. Showing me that nothing about this was simple. Whatever happened in those streets wouldn’t change the family we’d made. However, it was something to actually know that you slept next to a stone cold killer, every night.
Now, I was thinking about all the times that I’d flirted with danger in our relationship. All the while, that man probably meant it when he’d tell me that I didn’t want to meet his other side. While I had been thinking that shit was a game.
“Baby,” he spoke softly, as he scooted behind me, and placed his chin on my shoulder. “I know you not sleep.” He reached around and lifted my nightie to rub my stomach. “You know that I can’t sleep, until I can slide in it.”
I didn’t respond, as his hand traveled up further to my tender breast. Breathing into my ear, he massaged my aching boob, causing me to unintentionally moan.
“Lift your leg up,” he instructed, knowing that I never went to bed with panties on.
Stubbornly, I didn’t move, and he lifted my leg for me. Then I could feel him fumbling around with his boxers, before his hard dick was pressing against my opening.
Like always, I gasped, when he pushed his hard dick inside of me, because no matter how many times we did this, that pressure never lessoned.
“Why you pretending that you don’t hear me, when this pussy is soaking wet? Hmm?” He spoke in my ear, while he’d completely pulled my titty out of my nightie, and was rubbing my sore nipple.
With the stillness of the night, my pussy was loudly smacking, while he sensually pumped in and out of me.
“Damn, baby. This pussy is the fucking best. I swear to God,” he declared, before burying his face in the crook of my neck to passionately suck my skin.
I was trying my best to hold back, but the way that he was thrusting in and out me had my toes curling. Then he was going balls deep into me, stimulating my clit at the same time.
“Stop holding back,” he once again spoke in my ear. “I don’t care about nothing that happened outside of this room. Either way, this is my pussy. You know that. So, be a good bitch, and cum for me.”
He was now pounding into me, while his balls loudly slapped my ass.
“Cum!” He growled.
Reaching around, he maneuvered his hand between my thighs and slid a finger between my slit. Then as he was beating this pussy up, he fluttered that finger over my clitoris, and that did it for me.
“Ahhhhh!” I let out a high-pitched scream, while my body violently shook.
“Yeah, that’s what the fuck I’m talking about. Cum on this dick,” he urged, while never missing a stroke.
I felt like a sex-crazed maniac, as I found myself wildly kissing him, while he continuously fucked me.
My pussy was soaked and not with just my own wetness.
He’d busted in me, and kept right on drilling that dick into me.
We both still clearly needed more, because we couldn’t stop, and I couldn’t even say when or how we’d fallen asleep with his dick still planted inside of me.
***
For the first time in life, I was going through real shit, and couldn’t tell a soul about it.
There was no way in hell that I was going to tell anybody that Malice was responsible for Claro’s death.
Then there was still the looming threat of Paisley’s family.
It was all too much, and I guess that Malice could feel it too, because he refused to leave me alone.
Ever since I’d learned the new information, he’d been stuck on me like white on rice. Hell, I couldn’t cry, if I wanted to, because he would be right there, wanting to know what the tears were about.
What I think was most shocking, even for myself, was the fact that it hadn’t changed how I felt about him.
For a brief moment, I thought that maybe it would, but the moment he slid between these thighs, all was forgotten.
Without a doubt I was still in love, and I was beginning to believe that absolutely nothing could change that. And that had me feeling extreme guilt.
I could only imagine the ways that made Zae feel. At one point, we claimed to be in love, and now, I was with a man who was responsible for him nearly dying. If the shoe was on the other foot, that would unquestionably change my heart towards him, and I was sure that he felt the same about me now.
Of course, for obvious reasons, I hadn’t tried to reach out to Zae again, and he hadn’t tried to call me.
He’d given me that warning and that was it.
Then, after knowing what I now knew about Malice, I figured that it was no point in telling him about those threats.
Because it wasn’t going to change the course of things, anyway.
I had accepted that things were out of my hands, and there was nothing I could do to talk either of them down.
I also completely understood why. For Zae, it was about getting revenge.
For his friend and himself. With Malice, he couldn’t afford to leave a viable threat roaming around.
And it would be na?ve of me to think that things would go unanswered.
That’s why I was sitting in my sister’s salon, surrounded by chatter, but hadn’t heard a word that anybody was saying. I simply had too much shit on my mind. Then I kept avoiding eye contact with Riah, whenever she’d try to give me signals.
I’m sure that she was wondering why I could no longer come to the shop alone, and it was probably throwing her off with the way Malice had chosen to sit right beside me the entire time, versus waiting outside, like most men would usually do.
Low key, I think that he was sitting there to make sure that I didn’t get to saying too much. He’d made it clear that he didn’t want me sharing any of our latest dilemmas with anybody. So, until he felt comfortable, he literally wasn’t giving me the opportunity to have any sidebar conversations.