Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
Q
A WEEK LATER
My phone was still on DND because I didn’t have shit to say to anybody.
I was devastated. Gutted in a way I didn’t even know was possible.
Since a jit, I’d loved Jameera, trusted her, supported her, only to be humiliated in return.
While I was planning to propose, buy the crib of her dreams, and start the next chapter of my life with her, she was fucking around on me.
I spent the first twenty-four hours at the building I purchased.
Outside of James, my accountant and realtor, nobody else knew about my future endeavors.
It was a surprise I planned to share with everyone when the job was complete.
The studio and office were the only sections of the building that were complete.
The first twelve hours were wasted planning a diss song that I never recorded.
A response was what I knew the fans would be expecting.
As a rapper who loved the craft, it was the next step in the game.
However, I felt fucked up even thinking about giving up that side of my life for public consumption.
Fuck a narrative, a nigga was heartbroken.
When I got tired of staring at the walls in the studio, I caught a flight to New York, and that’s where I’d been hiding out for the past week.
Tech and Xain were the only people I’d been in contact with since leaving Amill and Jameera looking stupid in that hallway.
If it weren’t for Tech’s skill set, I wouldn’t have talked to his ass either.
The only way he’d agree to help was if I’d let him and Xain tag along, so there we were, sitting in the dark house.
Tech clicked around on his laptop. Fingers moving at least a hundred miles per hour. Whatever Tech was doing had his full attention, and every few seconds he would lean in closer to the screen to examine things.
“You fucked up, Q,” Tech interrupted the agonizing silence.
“What you mean?”
“The ladies went to see Jameera today—”
“And I don’t give a fuck,” I spat.
“Just shut yo angry ass up and listen. I ain’t one of those peons that work for you,” Tech argued.
“Aye nigga, what you trying to say?” Xain piped up.
“Man, shut up. You know I’m not referring to yo muscle head ass,” Tech retorted.
“Like I was saying. I couldn’t believe Jameera would do some shit like that, so I took it upon myself to figure out the hotel and see if I could access their security footage. Jameera’s story hasn’t changed, and I fully believe her now. Look at this shit.” He spun the laptop screen around.
I stood from the recliner and leaned down to get a good look at the footage.
Xain was standing over Tech’s shoulder watching the footage as well.
Jameera went into the room as the security guard walked out.
Another woman walked out less than sixty seconds later, and Jameera ran out with a scowl on her face a few minutes after that.
With every passing second, my heart beat faster.
Jameera lifted the can of mace in D3’s direction, and my blood ran cold.
I was sickened with remorse, wondering why Jameera didn’t feel comfortable enough to tell me what happened before everything went to hell.
“How good you eat pussy?” Tech inquired
“What nigga?” I mugged him.
“I’m saying,” Tech shrugged. “You better slang good dick or eat pussy like a lesbian after the way you gave Jameera your ass to kiss for some shit she ain’t do.
That girl has been so distraught that Khaleesi had to go to y’all crib to water her plants yesterday.
You know those plants are Jameera’s kids.
Hell, even Amill and Khaleesi been over there with their faces screwed up. They all on some fuck Q shit.”
“If Jameera was cheating, they would know about it. I thought they were all playing in my face,” I admitted.
“I told yo ass there was a world where that shit wasn’t what it seemed like. Look at my silly ass. Salena still swears I fucked Khaleesi in that hotel room, and all I got was my ass beat in there,” Xain tossed out there.
“I’mma kill that nigga,” I cracked my knuckles.
“You can’t kill him, Q.”
“Shit, why not?” Xain questioned.
“Tech palmed his forehead out of frustration. That’s exactly why I wouldn’t give him the information and let y’all run off with it.
If D3 come up dead, the first motha fucka they are going to look at is Q!
” He lectured. “I should’ve known what type of time you were on when you came with no ski mask. ”
I opened my mouth to respond but stopped when I heard the light beeps from someone fumbling with the smart lock on the door.
Tech closed his laptop and pulled the ski mask over his head as the front door opened.
The door clicked shut as D3 rapped a line from his weak-ass diss song.
After a week, D3 was out of the blogs, and the song wasn’t making any noise.
My refusal to respond extinguished whatever clout he thought playing with my name would get him.
Being too emotionally fucked up to respond played in my favor slightly.
I would have only given that nigga more buzz, which was clearly his objective.
The lights flicked on, and D3’s phone slipped from his hand, tumbling to the floor.
“Q, let me explain. I—”
D3’s words were silenced when I darted across the small distance between us and knocked him in the jaw.
CRACK!
His head snapped to the side, and he reached for his jaw, blood dripping on the beige carpet.
I followed up with my other fist. The sound of my knuckles meeting bone only fueled the rage roaring inside of me.
D3 stumbled back, holding his jaw with one hand, and the other hand raised like a white flag.
“Naw! Fuck that, jit!” I swatted his hand and grabbed him up by his shirt, our feet shuffling across the carpet until I slammed him up against the door.
Blood soaked his cream Gucci shirt. His jaw looked like it was hanging on by a thread, sagging at an unnatural angle. “Q, I—” He murmured due to his fucked up jaw.
I didn’t give two fucks. His words ceased when I drove my fist into his stomach, knocking the breath from him. He knelt over, and I held onto his back, repeatedly driving my knee into his ribs.
“Fuck nigga, don’t ever put me or Jameera’s names in your fucking mouth again!” I raged.
“Alright, stop! I told you we can’t kill him,” Tech chastised, pulling me away from D3.
“Weak ass nigga didn’t even put up a fight but got my name in your dick suckers. Putting your fucking grimy hands on my woman! Next time I’mma kill you bitch. How that Silver Spoon ass whooping feel, fuck nigga?”
D3 coughed up blood, and Tech turned around to grab his laptop off the couch.
We were stepping over his battered body on the way out of the door within a matter of seconds.
Our shoes clacked against the pavement as we ran to the rental car that was parked at the end of the block.
As soon as we were safely inside, I placed a call to Jameera, but she didn’t answer.
“You better get ready to grovel nigga,” Tech suggested.
I leaned my head back against the seat, knowing I had a long fight out of the doghouse.
When we got back to Florida, Tech dropped me off at my building. I went straight to Amill’s apartment because that’s where Tech said Jameera was last. Knocking lightly, I waited patiently, remembering how I showed my ass the last time I was there.
“What do you want, Q? Jameera isn’t in a good mental space to have you berating her for some shit she didn’t do,” Amill spat, folding her arms across her chest.
“I know, Amill. I apologize. My head was fucked up. I wasn’t thinking clearly, and I reacted before thinking.”
“You can let him in,” Jameera called over Amill’s shoulder.
“You sure you want him in here?” Amill spun around to face Jameera.
“Yeah.”
Amill stepped aside, and I laid eyes on Jameera for the first time in a week.
Jameera’s eyes were puffy, and there were slight bags underneath them.
Her hair was pulled up into a matted bun that looked like it hadn’t been combed in days.
With her hair texture, that was a cardinal sin if it wasn’t in a protective style.
She was wearing a pair of my boxers and a t-shirt, and I took a deep breath.
Knowing that I fucked up and made both of us miserable for the past week.
“You’re only here because your brother felt like he knew me well enough to know I wouldn’t cheat on you. He told Jury he got his hands on the security footage that showed everything I told you,” Jameera started. “After all of these years and everything that we’ve been through, you don’t trust me!”
“I trust you. I just had a moment of bad judgment, and I apologize—” I started.
Jameera cut me off, storming over to me, raising her hand and pointing her finger in my face.
“I have to be confident enough in myself to know that you aren’t stepping out on me when women are constantly in your face.
Throwing themselves at you! Every time you are even too close to a woman, blogs start rumors, and everybody and their mama runs with it.
But I know you’re solid, so I don’t flinch.
I never batted an eye. The one and only time I need you to trust me, I don’t get the same in return.
You came in here talking to me like I ain’t worth shit.
I wasn’t even worth the conversation. Fuck you, Q! ”
“Jameera, I apologize but—”