Chapter 2
Tunan “Tune” Payne
“Uncle Tunan, you cannot pick up your phone. Your nails are still wet.”
Athena glared at me with what she thought was a menacing stare, but in reality, she looked like a baby doll.
Her eyes were round and sparkled, and her cheeks were soft and blushed.
The diamond earrings in her earlobes were as blinding as the ring light she had pointed directly at my face.
Using the back of her hand, she swiped her braids out of her face, and because of the design, the two-beaded braids fell right back in place.
Beep Beep
“All dry. See?”
I removed my hands from under the UV light.
I held them up so she could inspect them.
My phone kept ringing, but I knew better than to touch it until Athena gave me the okay.
My ass was numb from sitting on the small, pink furry stool, and my fucking back was burning from hunching over the small vanity table that had been converted into a nail tech’s station.
Or maybe it was an actual nail tech’s station since there was a vanity tucked in the corner, filled with too many makeup products for a seven-year-old.
Athena had everything a child could ask for.
For the last couple of months, she’d been on a nail journey, filming herself on her private page, where she had only her family members as followers.
Using her index finger, she carefully tapped each one of my nails. I waited patiently as she did her examination. My phone had stopped ringing, but the missed call notification flashed across the screen.
“You’re dry. But I really think you should let me add a color like last time.” She beamed.
The last time she painted my nails, she went back home to her mama and her stepfather without taking the color off.
I bought every product at Walgreens to remove black polish, but the shit wouldn’t budge.
When I showed my sister, she laughed herself to tears for at least ten minutes straight.
She was giggling so fucking hard she had to run to the bathroom so she wouldn’t piss on herself.
Tuscany had to take me to the nail salon up the street to get that polish drilled off.
Apparently, Athena had used shellac and didn’t have the tools in her kit to remove it.
I told myself that was the last time I was letting her practice on me, but here I was again.
This time, I only allowed her to use clear products.
Instead of telling her hell no, I smiled at my pretty niece and stood.
“Next time, Thena.”
Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out a fifty-dollar bill and set it on her table. She grinned toothlessly, since she was missing both of her front teeth, and tucked the money into her little pink smock.
“See you in two weeks.”
Grabbing my phone, I repeated it in my head to see if the number that had called me was one I recognized as I left her room. As I drew a blank, it rang again.
“Wassup?” I answered.
I could hear loud chatter and what sounded like fingers snapping. I took the phone away from my face to check the number again, then put it back to my ear as I navigated through my sister’s hallway, stepping over my nephew’s Paw Patrol ride-on truck.
“Tell this goofy-ass nigga, Gotti was having money before the rap.”
The accent was Chicago—that much I knew, but it wasn’t my brother, Nel, Vello, or Ezio. I pretty much knew them niggas voices, especially after spending time in that hot-ass desert together.
“Nigga, Gotti got money from rap. I give’m that!” I heard in the background.
“Yeah, he got richer with the rap, but him and his people was gettin’ money in the streets. Shut yo’ slow ass up. You from Jagoda Bay. How you gone speak on Memphis business?”
“Aye, who dis is?” I asked as the two bickered in my ear.
I grabbed my keys from the table, jutted my chin at my sister and her husband, who were lying on the couch, giggling at a movie, while my nephew was knocked out in his bouncer.
“You gone?” Baguette asked.
“Yeah.”
He nodded and went right back to the movie.
Baguette didn’t trip on me staying here, but I knew he and Tuscany needed their privacy.
I was in the mob now, but I still hadn’t been put on any money yet, so I didn’t need to be moving recklessly with my cash.
I knew it was only a matter of time, though, before I had to get my own place.
If push came to shove, I could get me a pack and bring in enough to keep my head above water without spending the stash I had.
I’d gone from a hundred thousand to seventy, and I didn’t need my funds to keep going down.
I’d started with eight fresh out, so I was grateful to even have what I had.
Still, I wasn’t the type of dude who sat around twiddling my thumbs.
Something would have to shake, and real soon.
“Aye, what you on, mane?”
By the time I was planted behind the wheel of the Infiniti, I’d figured out the identity of the caller. Italian—one of the badass little Cuppacios. I’d given them my number the other day, but hadn’t expected them to use it. However, Italian hadn’t wasted much time at all before ringing my line.
“I’m just saying… I told this nigga I got folks that’s from the M. He really salty cuz I’m breakin’ his ass in the dice game.”
Pulling out of the driveway with no real destination in mind, I chuckled. “Yeah. Gotti ’nem been havin’ paper.”
“Told you, bitch-ass nigga.”
“Aye, where you?” I asked Italian.
“Breakin’ niggas pockets? Why, you tryna get yours emptied?”
Gambling was the last thing I needed to be doing, especially with some young niggas, but it had been a while since I came up on the dice.
“Yeah, I can come through and take y’all’s lunch money.”
“Yeah, we gone see… I’m ’bout to send you the lo’.”
Italian disconnected the call first, and a few seconds later, I received his location.
From where my sister lived, there was about a thirty-five-minute drive to Italian.
The plan was for me to chill today and give Glow some time to get her mind right.
When I left her house, I went to the mall for Athena and took my ass home to sleep.
I’d stayed longer than I planned with the baby until Glee woke me up, telling me she had to change her diaper.
It was then that I got a good look at Glee.
She was pretty as hell, so I could see why Leader was going insane about her.
The baby was so young, but I could see both her and Leader’s features in her face.
Knowing that Leader had been looking for Glee and knowing he wasn’t privy to impregnating her felt heavy as fuck to carry.
Glow and I were married, even if it was just some on-paper shit, but Leader was my nigga.
My loyalty had to be with Glow now, despite her thinking I wasn’t shit to her.
Realizing I couldn’t say shit to my nigga had me running out of that house so fast like it was fire under my fucking shoes.
I wasn’t no talkin’ ass nigga, and my name wasn’t DNA.
I was about ninety-nine percent sure Leader was the daddy, but that was Glee’s story to tell.
Plus, when Glow found out her sister had been fucking a young kingpin, she was going to be ready to kill her.
I needed to stay my ass on my side of town and let them sort that shit out.
Hopefully, Glow wasn’t going upside that damn girl’s head.
I knew she loved her sister despite the disappointment, so they would be all right.
But shit was going to hit the fucking fan real soon, and I didn’t want to be caught in the middle of it.
It was only so much that my dick could do to settle Glow down.
Eventually, Glee was going to have to face up to the consequences of her actions and tell her sister to stand the fuck down.
After all, Glee was well over the age of eighteen or nineteen, if I could remember correctly.
“The fuck dese lil’ niggas got goin’ on?”
Parking my car, I pulled my Glock from under the seat and tucked it in my waistband before getting out.
A group of girls switched by, with shorts so small, they looked like panties.
One was eating a red pickle that stained her lips, another stood with a blue freeze cup, and a third was scrolling on her phone.
The fourth, who was the thickest of them all and damn sure shouldn’t be dressed in anything that small, argued on the phone, screaming so loudly that her voice was cracking.
They all eyed me, and although they were straight in the face, all I offered them was a head nod.
Though I was a married man, Glow and I’s shit wasn’t solid.
I wasn’t interested in fucking on shit if it wasn’t her, though.
Women were still at the back of my mind, with getting my shit together in the front.
Glow wasn’t even supposed to happen, but she had.
Thankfully, she had her own motion and didn’t require too much from me outside of a nut she swore she didn’t want, but that wet-ass pussy begged to differ every time.
The row houses that sat in the street weren’t the best, but they weren’t the worst I’d seen either.
Kids were running in the yards, some of them only had patches of grass.
Old heads were on their porches, and there was another group of teenage girls doing TikToks in front of a pale blue house.
The street was in full swing, and I hadn’t caught any bad vibes in the wind yet.
I hadn’t visited this side of Jagoda Bay yet, but I was good in any fucking hood.
“Who dat?”
Four heads popped up from being crouched down on the porch of the watermelon-colored house I’d parked in front of. When Italian’s thick brow rose, he waved the dude who was inquiring off.
“That’s my people. Keep yo’ fuckin’ eyes on the dice cuz you gone swear a nigga cheatin’ in a minute.”