Chapter 32
Two months later…
After all the staying off the scene, moving with precaution.
Malice being my shadow. We just woke up one day, and everything was different.
I wanted to take a ride to my sister’s alone, and he didn’t come.
He’d removed the restraints, and I could only guess that Drop was a distant memory.
So, I went to social media and did a little digging to learn that Drop, his brother, and a few other men had been killed at one of the men’s houses.
Right then, I realized that there was a part of me that was a little evil, because I couldn’t find it within me to give a damn.
With Drop, nothing had to go as far as it had.
His daughter cutting up over some dick was supposed to be the drama for the moment.
Not turn into some life-altering event. But people were stupid sometimes.
Even old ones, who were egotistical and had to show the world how tough they still were.
That type of ignorant, don’t step on my shoe type of mentality needed to be completely eradicated. Had no place in society, amongst us with good common sense. So, it was good riddance to Drop and his people, and it was fuck Paisley too.
Having sympathy for her had long ago gone out the window, as she did everything, but move the fuck on.
It was honestly sad, because she was gorgeous, and could’ve easily found another man.
They wouldn’t have been my Khamere, but at least it could’ve been somebody who actually wanted her ass.
And now, she’d buried her daddy, along with his flunkies.
Now, after the rain, the sun was shining again.
Malice had quietly handled everybody, while managing to keep me far away from most of the bullshit.
I still had my moments where I’d think about Zae, but overall, I was better.
I could breathe easier, and focus on bringing a healthy baby boy into this world.
Ironically, I thought that we’d all be harping on my age with having these kids back-to-back, but with so much other shit happening, me being pregnant was probably the most normal thing out of it all.
At one point, I questioned if me and Malice had moved too soon, considering everything that had happened, once we’d decided to commit.
However, as time went on, I realized that I was okay with things happening sooner in our relationship.
Versus some time passing, before I was blindsided by the lifestyle I’d stepped into.
Now, I knew that we were battle tested. Malice didn’t fold under pressure.
I could depend on him. He made shit happen.
And he would do anything to protect me. So, as much as there would always be some type of threats out there, with him I felt safe.
“Jaylah, you want me to fix you a plate?” Keyasia offered, as I was chilling on her couch.
“Girl, you already know,” I lightly responded.
We were having a girls’ night at Key and Wale’s.
It was a bunch of us there, cackling, gossiping, laughing, and talking shit.
It was a kids’ free occasion, and I wasn’t mad about it.
My nieces and nephews were a damn handful.
Khari was too. And then there was Key, and our girl Jazel’s kids, who were in a whole other league of bad.
With nannies and all, we still needed breaks. So, we tried to host these nights at least once a month, and I was starting to look forward to it, since I wasn’t outside, dancing on couches in sections, these days.
“Well, fix me a plate too, since you at it,” Jazel teased, as she sat beside me.
Pursing her lips, Key waved her off. “Bitch, you aint pregnant, and I don’t look nothing like Craven’s pussy whipped ass. You can’t boss me around.” She stuck her tongue out, before switching off to the kitchen.
“And this food is good as fuck,” Mya, a family friend, and the wife of Houston’s very own Guap, claimed as she dug in.
“Let me see,” Taraj said, as she plucked a deviled egg off Mya’s plate.
“Move, girl.” Mya angled her body away from Taraj. “Go get your own plate.”
Taraj was greedily tearing that deviled egg up. “I sure the fuck am. And I’ma make two plates to go,” she announced with no shame, as she scooted off the couch.
I arched a brow, while studying her. Taraj was known to have one of the nicest bodies around, and I was just realizing that her booty was humongous, right then. Then her stomach wasn’t flat, which was evident in the cropped tee she was wearing.
“Raj, are you pregnant?” I had to ask.
She goofily giggled. “Yup.”
Jazel crinkled her nose. “Girl, your nasty ass should be ashamed of yourself. You went all these years with just one baby, and now you having them critters back-to-back.”
Hearing that, everybody exploded with laughter, knowing that Jazel should’ve been the last to talk. She had five damn, bad-ass, nerve-wracking kids of her own.
“Well, at least my kids don’t keep getting kicked out schools.” Taraj gave her the finger, before sauntering off to the kitchen.
Jazel merely waved her off, because we all knew that she didn’t give a damn. “Anyways.” She turned to look at me. “Why when me and Craven was riding through the hood the other day, we ended up at a hole in the wall and saw your baby’s daddy?”
I nodded. “That’s not surprising. That’s his uncle’s club.”
“Craven said that. Anyway, while we was there, some fancy hoes pulled up. They clearly knew Malice, and was all in his face. Or at least tried to be. Baby, when I say that he shut that shit down. Told them hoes not touch him and that he was married. And I told Craven, now that’s how you shut these bitches down! ”
Everybody looked at me.
Mya smirked. “Jaylah, y’all got married?”
“Nah.” I shook my head. “Not yet.”
“Well, it’s just a matter of time,” Jazel predicted. “Cause he aint one of them niggas who’s gonna drag his feet. I can tell.”
I shrugged. “If he does he does, if he doesn’t he doesn’t.”
Jazel creased a brow. “So, you really don’t care about being married to your man?”
“Not really. My name is on all the deeds. The bank accounts. I got the codes to all the safes. Life policies. So, I’m covered. Putting all that shit in my hands is the highest level of commitment, if you ask me. So, wedding or not, that ass is mine.”
“Yesss.” Mya tapped those two fingers together.
“Well, in that case, I got you,” Jazel claimed, just before my cell rang.
“Hello?” I answered, right when Key approached me with a plate of chicken spaghetti, salad, and deviled eggs. “Thank you.”
Key nodded. “It’s baked spinach dip, onion dip, and honey hot wings in there, if you wanna try some of that too.”
“Damn,” Malice spoke into the phone. “Make sure that you make me a plate, bae.”
“Okay.” I took a forkful of the cheesy chicken spaghetti into my mouth. “Umm.” I moaned. “Damn, this is good.”
“She had the food catered?” Malice nosily questioned.
“No. She cooked everything herself.”
“Oh, shit. Homecooked food? Yeah, I gotta get a plate.”
I smirked. “Greedy ass.”
“I know, I know.”
“Anyway, what’s up?”
“Shit, nothin’.”
“What the fuck?” I tittered. “So, you called and didn’t want nothing?”
“I didn’t want nothin’, so I can can’t call?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“Alright, then.”
I shook my head. “Where are you?”
“Why?”
“So, I can’t know your location?”
“I’m mobile.”
“Well, clearly.”
“Eat-eat,” I faintly heard Khari in the background.
I frowned in confusion. “Bae, I thought that she was with Ms. Shelia?”
“She was, then she wasn’t. We was both missing mommy, so we went to drown our misery in ice-cream cones.”
I sighed. “I swear that we’re just paying Ms. Shelia to be paying her, at this point. You never let her do her job, these days.”
“She still earns her keep, but I’m always home now. So, her role just shifted.”
“Right.” I smiled, while marveling at the fact that my man had quietly made the transition out of the streets, without making any promises, until it was done.
I think that after the drama with Drop and Zae, he quickly grew weary, although some of that drama didn’t even stem directly from being in the streets.
I guess after all that, he decided that he didn’t want to deal with no more than he had to.
Besides, he’d been hustling for sport, as he’d reached all his financial milestones a while ago.
“Yeah.” Malice yawned into the phone. “I’m getting sleepy. So, how much longer you think that you’re gonna be?”
I narrowed my gaze. “You do remember that I rode here with my sister, right? So, I’m not holding you up. You can literally head home.”
“Nah, I’m straight. I’ma just pull up and wait outside.”
I had to laugh at his foolishness. “You know damn well that Khari aint gone peacefully sit outside.”
“Okay, then, we’ll come in.”
“Malice.” My lips curled. “You know—”
“I’ll let you sit on my face,” he interjected.
I scooted to the edge of the couch. “Key, can you fix me some to-go plates? I’m ‘bout to go home.”
Riah shook her head, and laughed. “See, I told you, Jhyrah. You picking her up didn’t change nothing. That clingy nigga wasn’t letting her hang for too long.”
I rolled my eyes, after climbing to my feet. “See how you got them talking about me?” I pouted, as I spoke into the phone.
Not giving a damn, Malice sucked his teeth. “Man, I aint trying to hear that. I’m outside. You want your ass ate or not?”
I slid my tongue across my teeth. “Here I come.”
Three weeks later…
Paisley
I couldn’t stop rapping my nails on my steering wheel, as I listened to the phone just ring. I’d called Tee at least five times, and had gotten no response. I guess at this point, I shouldn’t’ve even been surprised.
The way everybody had switched up on me since my daddy had been killed should’ve been studied. All the dick riders were gone. My fucking daddy had been shot six times like he was nothing. Like he didn’t have a family and hadn’t given back to so many in the hood.