6. Off Guard #2
Gathering Breeze and Bijou, they insisted that Toni take them to get ice cream, so she stopped at Soft Serve to grab them each a small sundae before heading home.
Both kids were still full of energy, and she blamed her husband wholeheartedly for it.
She even texted him on her way out the door to let him know.
Bull promised to make it up to her. As she tucked her phone in her purse, she looked up, only to find Urso, Onika, and his very pregnant daughter, Uma, exiting Stack’d Burger Co.
together. Breeze and Bijou were both focused on their next scoop and hardly paying any attention.
The minute Onika’s eyes landed on her daughter with her children, she went rigid.
She was human, and Toni was her child, whether she treated her as such or not.
Seeing her with her own kids was humbling.
Judging from the jewelry and her Fendi ensemble, life obviously was treating her well at the same time.
She gripped the fob to her Porsche Cayenne that Urso noticed, rubbing his full belly from the combo meal he’d just devoured, cold eyes raking over Toni and her babies.
“Look at this little ungrateful bitch,” Urso grumbled.
“Make sure you tell that bitch Chai ain’t a rock she can hide under after what she did to me and my kids. It’s far from over, and when I see her, it’s on sight!” Toni nudged her children along with Ham not far, watching her back.
“One day those kids are going to grow up and find out the truth. About you, Bull, and Bronx. Then what you gonna do, Toni? Bull ain’t invincible either. You already lost one baby daddy.” Her mother sniped.
“Go to hell, Onika! As long as my kids are far away from you, that’s all that matters. Stay the fuck away from me and my family.”
“Don’t threaten my sister,” Uma chimed in, stroking her very full, round belly.
“Fuck you and your sister. I owe her the rest of an ass whupping, and I plan on collecting. What, they got you breeding for them now?” Toni sneered.
“Mind yo’ fucking business. You still owe for running off when you know we had a fucking deal.” Urso tried to get in her face, but Ham intercepted him getting any closer.
“Go to hell, Urso! Best fucking believe your time is coming too!” Toni ushered her kids to the curb where their car was parked and helped them inside.
Once they were both secure in their car seats, she rounded the front of her car, grilling the shit out of her former family the whole way.
Ham got into his whip and trailed her through traffic on her way home.
Toni gripped the steering wheel angrily, still reeling from the day’s events as she sped right by the black town car parked at the end of the block.
Sudan watched the entire situation unfold, but what piqued his curiosity the most was Onika.
It’d been decades since he’d laid eyes on her.
She was still a bad bitch, with an attitude that erased anything attractive one might find in her.
He’d heard she married some fuck nigga, and seeing Urso’s sloppy ass told him everything he needed to know.
He nodded to his driver to pull off. Now, on top of the questions he already had, a few more lingered.
Niva used her key to let herself into the home she’d grown used to sharing with Oracle.
She’d just left the Pointe Plaza District on a mini shopping spree on his dime, and couldn’t wait to model all the sexy things she copped at Victoria’s Secret.
Things with Oracle were good, but lately he seemed a little distracted.
Not like himself. Ever since running into Eazy a few months back with that Lotus girl, both were trying to keep up the act like things were normal.
She knew better. Eazy was a factor in their lives.
The whole crew was. It was awkward and uncomfortable walking around town, not knowing when or if someone would strike.
Or who they’d run into at the market or out to eat.
Oracle did good to reassure her, but in the back of her mind, guilt still ate away at her.
Most nights she couldn’t sleep, remembering that look on Eazy’s face.
He’d checked out, and she knew it, but she had no idea how to get back on his good side.
Pausing with her keys in hand, Niva listened, thinking she was tripping when she heard the banging noise from somewhere inside the house.
She didn’t see Oracle’s car parked out front, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t put it in the garage like he often did.
She’d been gone for hours, though. Dropping her bags on the sofa with her purse, she traipsed through the house slowly.
Pausing at the bottom of the staircase after she’d walked through the entire bottom floor and found no one, Niva held her breath, and then she heard it again.
She tiptoed to her purse and retrieved the .
22 she kept tucked. Making sure she was ready to go, she started up the staircase until she reached the bedroom door where she and Oracle slept.
Left ajar, Niva’s thought her eyes and ears were deceiving her.
Watching Oracle hold his baby mama Staci’s wide hips and pound into her from behind was the last thing she expected to walk into. This motherfucker!
“What the fuck is this!” she demanded, kicking the door open.
Oracle swiped his pistol off the bed and aimed it at her.
“Shit, Niva!” he hissed, sliding his glistening pole out of his ex’s folds.
She didn’t seem embarrassed in the least, tongue sliding over her lips as a grin spread, and she rolled onto her side. Niva dropped the gun at her side, eyes flooded with tears searching Oracle’s face.
“Are you serious right now, O? After everything?” she whispered.
“Look, shit ain’t even like that—”
“Oh, it’s definitely like that, and it never stopped, sweetie.” Staci gloated, propping her head onto her hand. “Don’t worry. I don’t want him. Just the dick occasionally. He’s all yours, except when I call.” She slowly sat up, fully naked and not giving one fuck. “I got lifetime rights to that.”
“All this time, you had me thinking it was us against the world. Is this where you were when you disappeared for weeks at a time, claiming you were off handling business?”
“Oh, so you’re not as dumb as you look?” Staci cackled.
“Stac—” Oracle chastised.
“What? I mean, at least make sure your main bitch knows the program, Oracle. Ain’t that how it’s always been? Or was she supposed to be special because she was Eazy’s girl? You always did want everything that nigga had,” Staci teased, rolling her eyes and sliding off the bed to pick up her clothes.
“What is she talking about?” Niva whipped her head in Oracle’s direction, watching him snatch his boxers off the floor and put them on.
“Trust me, he’s more concerned about the fact that you used to belong to his friend than you being his girl. This was all a game to him, and you were his consolation prize.”
“Get the fuck out.” Oracle growled, which only made Staci laugh harder.
Snatching up the rest of her clothes, she started toward the door. Niva almost let her pass, but the disrespect was far too real. So, she snatched her up and slammed her head into the wall.
“Shit!” Oracle rushed to break them up, but Niva slammed and flung Staci around like a toy doll.
“Fuck you, nigga!” Niva swung, fist connecting with Oracle’s jaw.
She’d split his lip and causing it to bleed, and he snatched her by both wrists, dragging her into his space until they were chest to chest.
“The fuck wrong with you? Calm down!”
“Calm down! Nigga, you got me fucked up! You told me I could trust you!” she yelled, yanking from his embrace with tears in her eyes.
“You made it so you were the only person I could turn to, all in my ear about how Eazy wouldn’t be able to help me and would take Bull and Braxton’s side over mine.
You were the muhfucka I couldn’t trust the whole time! ”
“Niv—”
“No! Don’t ever fucking touch me again! I hate you, Oracle!” she spat, stomping past Staci crumpled in the doorway.
“Niva, what you doing here?” Niva’s mama, Crystal asked when she stormed into her living room.
Face all frowned up after taking a shot of gin from the Seagram’s bottle, she took a pull from the Newport positioned between her fingers, Crystal was the epitome of a hood black mother.
Hair in rollers, house slippers on the last life, and sitting around in the robe and pajamas she’d been in all damn day.
When Eazy cut her off, she had to get out of the modest house he got for her in the better part of town.
Now she was right back where she came from after talking shit about everybody like she’d had a come up.
The fall was ugly. Now nobody fucked with her.
Like Niva, she kept her appearances minimal and usually wore a wig or some other disguise when she went out to avoid people.
“I needed somewhere to go.” Her daughter marched inside, blood still boiling and wanting to tear some more shit up as she thought about what her life turned into.
For the last thirty minutes, she’d been driving around Prospect Pointe, flooded with memories and crying her eyes out.
Talk about grief! Yeah, she missed her old life.
It was better than whatever the hell this was she woke up to.
Eazy. The home they created together. Sharing the dreams they had, not only for themselves but for them as a couple.
“Lord, what happened now?” Crystal leaned forward, and Niva snatched the bottle of gin from her.
The shot burned her throat, but she took another and paced her mother’s living room in the two bedroom right in the middle of the projects, one hand positioned on her hip.
“That bitch ass nigga!”
“Gotta be a bit more specific, baby,” Crystal slurred.