10. Rakim #2
“Yeah,” I confirmed. “I got other reasons, too, but a big one was because I thought she was beautiful. She made an impression on a nigga when I first seen her, so I thought, why not? Now—” I set the empty glass down—“because I want her, ain’t no deals to be made, my nigga.
She still like you, but I’m slowly breaking her up from that.
I suggest you forget about her because by the time I do decide to let her go, she gon’ fuck with me out of her own free will.
Won’t be no room for you, ’cause see—” I palmed my chest—“I’m a stingy muthafucka.
I would kill you now, but I’m not really interested in having to console my woman over her bitch ass ex. So I’ll let her leave you on her own.”
As I talked, I watched Shaun become visibly angry, making me rise to my feet. He wasn’t a short nigga, but he was shorter than my six feet, five inches.
“Nah.” He looked me up and down, shaking his head. “Fuck that. You gon’ give me my bitch back!”
“Who a bitch?”
“Maannn—”
“You got five seconds to tell me who the fuck you calling a bitch. and it bet’ not be Daylin.”
For a split second, he stared up at me, brows dipped in confusion and rightfully so. Shit, I, myself, couldn’t understand why I was on Daylin’s ass like I was. I mean, I could, but I couldn’t.
“Look, I’m giving you the opportunity to give me my woman back before I have to take her.”
I bobbed my head, letting him know I understood before sending my fist upward, crashing into the bottom of his chin and sending him onto his ass.
Bystanders shrieked as Shaun grunted, opening his mouth, wearing a horrified expression and showing that his teeth were covered in blood from having apparently almost severed his tongue with them.
He stared up at me, eyes oozing with terror as a crowd started to form, so I said, “Told you to clarify who you was calling a bitch. Now, I don’t really appreciate muthafuckas trying to take shit from me.
Act like you and Daylin never fucking happened, or we can get rid of yo’ bitch ass altogether.
The decision is in yo’ hands, nigga, but y’all two are broken the fuck up as of right now. ”
With that, I raised a hand to my brothers and dipped, leaving Shaun with a blood-filled mouth and no words for me.
It took me about forty-five minutes to get to the ranch style house where Daylin was being held.
“Thanks, my nigga,” I said to Mylo as soon as I walked through the front door.
“Anytime. All a nigga did was sit here.” He shrugged, smirking.
“And eat.” I gestured toward the trash that probably came from one of those charbroiled burger spots out in the city.
Mylo smirked and shrugged again before gathering up the remnants of his meal and taking it to the garbage.
Once I let him out and locked up, I ventured downstairs and into the bedroom where Daylin was.
She was laid up, reading, perfect ass brows furrowed as she studied the page that I knew must’ve been interesting as fuck.
She was cute when she did shit like that.
“Sorry. I didn’t see you.” She shut the book.
“That part must’ve been good.” I snickered, shutting the door.
“Yeah. She was just about to find out why her nigga has been acting so suspicious. I have to slow down. I only have one hundred pages left.” She exhaled heavily, sitting up.
“Only? One hundred pages would take me two weeks to finish.”
“Well, as you may not have noticed, Rakim, I have nothing else to do. Plus, that takes me about an hour to read.”
“Humble bragging.”
“Maybe a little.” She smiled at me, and for a moment, I lost my train of thought.
After a few beats, I finally pulled myself out of her spellbinding ass beauty to speak.
“I seen ya nigga tonight.” I watched as her eyes widened. “Tried to pay me to save you. Yo’ pops tried to convince me to allow him to holla at you too.”
“What did you say? I mean to us being able to talk. I already know you turned down his money, because that’s not what this is about, right?”
I hated that eagerness in her eyes. I never knew jealousy until I met Daylin.
Her boyfriend was a bitch, but I also got a bad vibe from the nigga.
The mere thought of her giving a fuck about the nigga, even while she was being held in captivity, while he was possibly up to no good irritated the fuck out of me.
“Right. And I told him he couldn’t speak to you.”
“What?” She frowned deeply. “Why would you say that?”
“Because I wanted to.” I sat down in the nearby chair, and she glowered at me.
I wanted to tell her that I liked her and didn’t want her talking to that nigga until I had a chance to romance her, but I kept that shit to myself.
Plan was to have Daylin so wrapped up in a nigga that she would willingly drop Shaun once she made it out of this shit.
Downside was, I had lost my leverage over her father, unbeknownst to him.
I was too enamored with his baby girl to kill her, so I would have to figure some shit out.
Quiet as kept, I was enamored from the first time I saw her and should’ve kidnapped her sister instead to retain my dominance over Dr. Conrad.
“How do you even have any friends when you’re so mean and evil?” She scoffed, shaking her head.
“I don’t. I have my cousin, baby brothers, and then a worker that’s cool.”
“What about your twin?”
“What about that nigga?”
“Is he not on that list of friends?”
“Nah, he and I are just related.” I folded my arms.
“Odd considering you guys are twins. Twins are usually closer than normal.”
“Maybe identical, but Ayan and I are fraternal. We the same as you and yo’ sister, unlike Josias and Zaire who are identical. They share exact DNA.”
She nodded slowly with her mouth slightly ajar like she wasn’t aware of that fact.
“Hm, I didn’t know that. Why aren’t you and Ayan close?”
This woman asked more questions than Diane fucking Sawyer.
Laughing at her inquisitive ass, I replied, “We just don’t gel well with one another. It happens sometimes with siblings. He ain’t the same type of nigga I am, despite us coming from the same parents.”
“I definitely understand. So what did he do to make you distance yourself from him?”
When I shot her a look, she grinned brightly.
“You nosier than a muthafucka.” I took her pretty ass in.
No woman made me talk this much, and I didn’t even know how she did the shit.
“I mean, I don’t have shit else to do, and you’re interesting. You say all this cryptic shit, and I have no other way to find out the meaning unless I ask. Not my fault you don’t like talking.”
“I have never talked as much as I have since you brought yo’ ass around.”
“Brought my ass around?” She hiked a brow. “You brought me around, nigga. Now are you gonna answer or not?”
Only Daylin would be popping off at the mouth to a nigga who kidnapped her. And I liked that shit, sadly.
“Not,” I replied, hating that I was smirking at her because it, in turn, made her smile. I didn’t think I could take too much more of that shit. It was like a dopamine shot, no bullshit.
“Well, I’m not close with my siblings, particularly my older sister, so I understand. And since you and Ayan are fraternal, it’s the same situation as mine,” she explained.
“Why y’all not close?” I wondered aloud, knowing damn well her sister wasn’t on the level of Ayan. Ayan wasn’t even really a brother to me, only in blood and DNA. He felt more like an opp or even a fucking stranger.
I’d seen photos of Daylin and her sister, Serene, cheesing it up in front of Christmas trees on social media, so I knew they weren’t like me and my brother. The day someone was able to convince both Ayan and me to take a photo together, let alone a happy one, hell would freeze the fuck over.
“Because she kind of looks down on me. She always did, even when we were preteens—she’s two years older—but now it’s mainly because she’s a doctor, and I’m not.
She’s not the only one who looks down her nose at me because of it; my parents do too.
Cairo, my brother, is the only one who acts normally about it. ”
“Why didn’t you become a doctor then?” I sat back, studying her and getting my fill on her beautiful face for the night.
The excitement I felt from being able to stare at her as long as I wanted, blaming it on the fact that we were conversing, should’ve been studied.
“Majority of the reason is because I just don’t have an interest in medicine. The other is that I don’t like being told or forced into something.” Her brow heightened for a millisecond.
“Trust me, I can tell, and that’s why I asked. I knew part of the reason you ain’t take that route is ’cause you don’t like to listen to shit, even when it’s a dangerous situation.” I bobbed my head in the direction of her ankle.
“Not true! Most people would try to escape from this situation, Rakim! Doesn’t mean I’m rebellious.”
“Baby girl, . . . I kidnapped you and told you I’d kill you. You believe me, right?”
“I do.”
“Yet you still called me a bitch ass nigga and ain’t got a weapon in sight to back yaself up.” I wasn’t even done speaking before she started laughing. I couldn’t help but to join her, basking in how big her smile was.
“I mean, in my defense, that’s what you were giving at the time.” She shrugged, sighing and still giggling a little bit.
“You the first person to ever call me that,” I admitted.
She chuckled again, then let it cease naturally before saying, “I feel weird laughing with you under these circumstances. You could kill me, and I’m over here giggling and chuckling.”