11. The Truth Is #3
With her clutch in hand, Inari pointed to the bar on the other side of the club after spotting Moose and his brothers posted up in a section.
Right now, the further away she got from them the better.
She wasn’t quite ready to address Moose yet.
After her confession last night and him putting her to sleep, she woke up knowing it was wrong to bring him into her shit.
She was used to doing things on her own, but Moose had a way of breaking her barriers down.
Inari now had an ally, someone who was on her side for whatever she needed, yet she still didn’t trust it.
Something wouldn’t let her, no matter how good Moose was to her.
She knew he read it or at least suspected.
Tonight was about getting out to get him off her mind.
Instead, he was front and center. Coast and Ayla followed her, parting the crowd like the red sea as they made their way to a few empty stools at the bar.
Back at the Blackmoor table, Mozzi pulled from the blunt and leaned back.
Brim wasn’t far behind Coast, which he appreciated.
She acted like shit was sweet and nothing could happen to her when she’d already been shot once for being too close to him.
“The fuck they doing here?” Kong queried, nostrils flaring when he spotted some nigga slide up on Ayla and say some slick shit in her ear.
She hid a smile, and he took that as his cue to lean in even further.
She spun on her stool to face him, legs and thighs gleaming from the body butter she’d used on them after her shower.
Crossing one leg over the other, she propped her head in her hand, and the two of them put their heads together.
This wasn’t some random nigga. She knew him.
“Ion know.” Mozzi poured himself another shot and hit the blunt in his hand before passing it to Moose. “But I wanted to run something by y’all. After the party tomorrow night, me and Coast hopping a flight. We getting married.”
“Nigga what!” Moose almost hopped up from his seat.
“Yeah. We making this shit official. She thought everybody might want to come and be witnesses. We’re going to Hawaii, though. I already got a beach front villa booked and someone to perform the ceremony.”
“Oh, so you serious.” Kong swirled his drink in his glass before tossing his shot back.
“As a muhfucking heart attack.”
“You talk to Audiemar about this?” Kong lifted both brows.
“Nah.” Mozzi took another swallow of his drink. “I planned on bringing it up tomorrow during the party. Since Bee will be there, too, I want everybody on the same page.”
Moose tapped his ring against the table and dispensed enough for a couple of lines of coke before peering up at his brother.
“Ain’t no turning back after this. Not with Donahue or Coast.”
“When you turning your back on that shit, though?” Kong nodded to the powder substance as Moose divided it into two separate lines with his pinky finger.
“Get the fuck out my business,” he growled across the table.
“Make better choices,” Kong recited, sparking a fresh Newport.
He had his own vices, but they were nothing compared to Moose and the demons he fought. Like Mozzi, he was able to keep them at bay, until he couldn’t.
“Make better choices,” Moose mocked, lowering his head to the table.
Mozzi continued to smoke, his radar keeping a close eye on Coast. She grabbed a drink from the bar and all he kept thinking was it better be a fucking mocktail or she had him fucked up.
He let her do her thing, drinking, dancing with Inari and trying to get Ayla to loosen up.
The three of them hit the dance floor, and when the DJ spun in Too Short’s “Blow the Whistle,” the women went crazy.
All around them there was all kinds of ass shaking and stank faces being made.
Coast gyrated, shaking ass and belly, not giving one fuck who was watching, which made Mozzi smile.
She rubbed on her stomach and twirled in a circle, throwing her ass back as Inari and Ayla rapped word for word yelling ‘bitch’ with the rest of the crowd.
“Coast gon’ fuck around and twerk that baby right on out of there,” Moose kidded.
“That’s exactly what she trying to do.” Mozzi slowly stood. “We having a girl, too, so get your guns ready.”
“Congratulations, bro.” Kong nodded.
“Another spoiled ass girl in this family. Last thing we fucking need when Kara already think she run shit.”
“Fuck you, nigga. She got you wrapped around her finger ’cause you a fucking simp. She know I don’t play that shit,” Kong argued.
“’Cause you mean, like Audiemar. You’d think that nigga was your real daddy the way y’all act alike. If that nature versus nurture shit is true, we in for some shit with Mozzi and Coast’s baby,” Moose declared.
“Rara.” Mozzi grinned. “That’s her name. Short for Iara.”
“Rara.” Kong chuckled. “You fucking would.”
“She gon’ be turnt like her mama and her daddy. Fuck you mean?” Mozzi stepped away from the table so he could pop up on Coast on the dance floor.
She was showing the fuck out, and the crowd was only hyping her pregnant ass up.
When he approached, her back was to him, but he watched her hips wind and her ass jiggle.
Ayla and Inari spotted Mozzi first. Inari had already clocked them, so she wasn’t tripping, but Ayla’s eyes bucked in surprise.
If he was here that meant his brothers weren’t too far since they didn’t believe in going out solo.
Coast caught their weird expressions and a sudden warmth spread through her chest, right down to her clit.
Mozzi. She didn’t have to face him to know he was there.
A familiar waft of his cologne assaulted her nostrils.
She was damn sure trying to get fucked wearing that dress and moving like she was.
Turning, she threw her arms over his shoulders and danced sexily for him as he watched her through hooded eyes.
Her soft lips brushed against his and Mozzi rested his hands on both sides of her stomach while sliding his tongue into her mouth.
The whole club witnessed how Coast had him wide open, including Lin tucked away on the opposite side of the crowded establishment, turning up with Nickel and his boys.
Never one for public displays of any kind to begin with, he’d made it a point not to be up under any bitch unless he was fucking.
There was no holding hands, no kissing, or any real form of intimacy.
He’d established those rules a long time ago.
Until her. Watching his mother, Elaine, switch boyfriends every week and be called everything but a child of God put him on to women at an early age.
His grandmother used to call her a harlot.
He’d never seen a woman hate her own child so much.
Had to be why Elaine was so fucked up. Mozzi was taking ass whuppings from Rosanna long before he got to Haven House.
Coast wasn’t like any other woman he’d ever met.
She was his turn up, his chill space, and his own port in a storm called fucking life.
When the world was done with him and he had her to go home to, it brought a different sense of focus.
She was his. To protect, to keep, to be everything she needed.
He wasn’t sure where it came from or why now, but something told him after seeing her that he better seize his moment or it wasn’t spinning the block.
Tupac’s “I Get Around” bounced through the speakers, leaving Coast grinning and pulling back to look her man up and down.
This was his song. It annoyed the hell out of her, but he stayed playing this shit.
Still, she knew it word for word and rapped in his face.
Grinning cutely, he took his bottom lip between his teeth, bobbing his head to the beat before joining her in the verse.
Ayo bust it, baby got a problem saying ‘bye bye’/Just another hazard of a fly guy.
Coast pretended to brush dirt off his shoulders during their routine. Spinning so that her ass brushed against his rock-hard dick stretching through his pants, she purred and leaned into him.
“Somebody likes me.”
“You asking for it.” He hugged her from behind and whispered in her ear. “Don’t run when he comes home. Just open up and be a good girl.”
A deep shudder triggered up her spine, and Mozzi purposely poked her soft ass cheeks.
He’d been depriving himself for far too long, and that time was damn sure coming.
After two more songs, they cleared the dance floor, and Inari and Ayla followed Coast with Mozzi to the table he shared with his brothers.
Tension immediately followed when Inari couldn’t look at Moose, and Ayla avoided Kong’s intrusive ass stare.
Mozzi continued to hold Coast from behind, and she clapped her hands together happily to get everyone’s attention.
“Okay, ladies, Moses already let the cat out of the bag, so it’s only right that I let you know… we’re getting married.”
“What!” Inari squealed. “Really?”
“Yes, girl.” Coast turned and cuddled up to her man, not realizing Lin was nearby eavesdropping. “So, pack a bag. We’re all flying out tomorrow after the party. I need y’all there as my witnesses/bridesmaids.”
“Married!” Lin screeched. “You serious, Mozzi? You out here hugged up with this basic ass bitch, pregnant by another nigga, and everybody knows it! Now you ’bout to marry her? You finally lost the little marbles you had left?”
Coast nudged Mozzi off her to get to Lin.
“Nah, fall back from this.” Gripping her wrist, he snatched her back and positioned himself in front of her. “I’m ’bout to lose any restraint I got left and light yo’ ass up, Linda.”
She hated her name and used to say she sounded like an old woman, so she made everyone call her Lin for short. If a bitch ever called her anything but that, Lin would be ready to claw their fucking eyes out. She despised her mother for making her a junior like that shit was cute.
“Listen, Linda!” Moose cracked, feet tapping the ground as he doubled over laughing with the blunt in his hand.
“Fuck you, Mozzi! You want to know why I fuck with Nickel over you? Because he knows how to treat me. He knows how to act like a human being. Got no problem making it clear to anybody that I mean something to him when we are together. He ain’t some broken ass little boy who can’t get over his mommy issues! ”
Whomp!
“Bitch!” Coast stepped past Mozzi and rocked her right in the jaw.
Lin slammed into the ground, stunned. A wave of chatter broke out amongst the crowd, and naturally, people brought their phones out to record or go live.
As protective as Mozzi was of her, she’d grown into a lioness over her man.
If anybody was going to talk shit to him, it was going to be her and only her.
“Say… some more… shit!” Coast kicked her in her stomach with each word. “I… fucking… dare you!”
When she lifted her foot to stomp her out with her heel, Mozzi stepped in.
“Aight, Chun Li. Fall the fuck back.” Mozzi pushed her toward the table, and Nickel got in his face.
“The fuck you think you ’bout to do?” Mozzi immediately went for his hammer in his waist.
Moose and Kong were already equipped with their pistols on their laps, waiting on a motherfucker to jump.
“Fuck you! Yo’ bitch better keep her fucking hands to herself before I send that bitch into labor myself!” Nickel barked.
Mozzi pinched the tip of his nose and chuckled, watching Moose cautiously slip out of the booth.
He snuck Nickel before two of his boys could run up, locking both of his arms behind him so he couldn’t move.
Kong stood, gun aimed behind them at Nickel’s crew while the club crowd thinned out, looking for the exit.
Mozzi tucked his pistol back in place and swung.
Whack!
His fist landed right in Nickel’s jaw, sending blood spewing from his mouth. A unanimous roar of shock spread throughout the club. Even with guns involved, people were still recording in hopes of going viral. Nobody wanted to be too close in case bullets went flying, though.
“Let his bitch ass go.” Mozzi ordered. “Brim, get them out of here.” Mozzi nodded to Coast, Ayla, and Inari.
“Moses—”
“Give me five minutes, Trouble,” he replied without even looking at her.
Brim ushered them all to the back exit. Loosening his reigns, Moose dropped Nickel where he stood.
“Say whatever you want about my mama. I still ain’t no bitch like you!
Why don’t you tell these muhfuckas why you really don’t like me.
Nigga used to want to be down like Brandy with us when we was in the group home.
” Mozzi sneered, and Nickel’s eyes flickered with rage.
“Oh, you thought all these years I didn’t remember you, didn’t you?
” He cackled. “I just don’t fuck with weak niggas.
He was tired of getting his ass beat and peed on every other day,” Mozzi announced to the crowd before turning back to Nickel.
“My mama might’ve been a hoe, but at least I wasn’t locked in no fucking basement, pissing and shitting in buckets!
” Mozzi circled him, watching the hatred build in Nickel’s eyes with each word.
“When we left, I heard you was going around telling everybody we was the homies and how tight we was. That’s why I called you a fake ass nigga.
” Mozzi lifted his foot and kicked him in the face.
His boys tried to rush him, but Moose and Kong stepped in, waving their pistols. Mozzi removed his from his hip and kneeled so he could be eye level with Nickel.
“You want to know the difference between me and you? You the kind of nigga who thinks money can compensate for all the other shit you lack. See, me, I was that nigga before I started getting paper.” He brought the gun to Nickel’s temple.
“Mozzi, don’t!” Lin pleaded, knowing he would squeeze off with no remorse as she struggled to sit up. “Leave him alone!”
“Don’t worry. I’ll let this nigga live… for now,” Mozzi concluded, pressing the barrel of the gun into his temple before pushing it away from him.
Slowly bringing himself upright, he faced his brothers.
“Let’s go.” Tucking his pistol, Mozzi snickered with Kong and Moose retreating with him to the exit.
On his way out the back door with his brothers in tow, Lil Wayne’s “Hit ’Em Up” blasted through the speakers like a murder anthem.
The crowd parted for them as the lyrics bounced off the walls.
“Shootouts ain’t nothing but rock and roll to ’em, leave your blood on the dash call it rosewood.
” Mozzi had plans for his opps tonight. Arriving outside the club, he checked the back alley and spotted Brim’s SUV parked.
Since he rode with his brothers, he shot a quick text to Brim, telling him to head out, and they would be right behind them.