Chapter 20 #7
“Who the fuck you calling a bitch? Bitch! Fuck wrong with you, hoe?” Bella tried stepping around me, but I held her back.
“It’s cool, Bellz. I got it.” I stepped around Grind’s mama, but they both were right on my heels.
Kaylee was pretty. She was pretty the day she pulled the marriage certificate from her ass, breaking my heart, and was still cute now. But the bitch’s attitude was stank.
“Wassup, Kaylee?”
“You mean, Mrs…?”
“Oh, my bad. Wassup, Mrs. Bardin? What… You think me addressing you as his wife gone hurt my feelings? You his wife.” I shrugged. “Okay?”
“You think you so fucking smart and so fucking funny! I can’t see my own husband at all! I can’t even go up to the floor he’s on! We have a family! We have bills! He’s up there half-dead, and me and my niece going through shit!” she screamed.
“Bitch, pussy selling, all day, every day. Put it to use. Grind can’t do nothing with it right now,” Bella commented, making Shus snicker.
Kaylee’s eyes snapped to Bella. “Who the fuck is this white bitch?”
“The one that’s gone beat yo’ muthafuckin’ ass. Keep on!”
“I’m his wife. You not supposed to have more rank than me! And you foul, Shus! You know this shit wrong.”
“Ain’t shit foul about me. Like I told you, you gotta pay the cost to be the boss. And Pearla is the fucking CEO, baby. Take that shit up with my son when he wakes up because make no mistake, he will get up.”
“Fuck this shit! We’ll dog you in here, hoe!” one of the girls behind Kaylee spoke up. She, too, was wearing shorts, and I knew I wasn’t the smallest girl, but her apple-shaped body looked terrible in them.
“Facts! Mop this hospital with both them bitches.”
“Nawl, it ain’t gone be no jumping. Kaylee, take these dirty bitches away from here. I don’t know why you came up here anyway. You gone have to do like I did. Get a fuckin’ job!”
“Why the fuck I gotta get a job when my husband is rich? He gets all my sister’s baby daddy royalties! My niece needs her money! It’s her daddy’s money! Not Grind’s.”
I stepped up into Kaylee’s face. “Shut the fuck up! Why are you blurting out his business in this hospital?”
“Fuck you! Do I look like the type of bitch to work a job, fat-ass hoe?”
“No, and that’s the problem.” I smirked.
“Bitch!”
Three of Kaylee’s friends ran up but stopped dead in their tracks. P came up beside me and lifted his shirt. I’d felt it on him when he held me against his front when we spotted these hoes.
“Ain’t gon’ be no fuckin’ jumpin’ ’round this bitch.”
“Who the fuck is you?” Kaylee asked.
“A nigga that’s ready to pay the price. Like I said, first bitch waddle in this water, gon’ die like a fuckin’ duck. Call my bluff.”
“Period!” Bella co-signed.
“Now, if you act like you have some sense, maybe I can see what I can do for you, Mrs. Bardin. As you can see, I’m not an enemy you wanna have.”
“Hoe, you ain’t got more rank than me! I’m his wife! The last pussy he dipped off in before he was shot up! He just feels sorry for your big ass! He fucked me and took his ass right to you! How the fuck my pussy taste, bitch?” Kaylee swung and missed.
Not giving her time to retaliate, I threw a punch, ignoring the racing in my heart from her revelation. Her soft nose crunched under my fist, but I kept throwing blows. I could feel her scratching my face from the stinging of her nails, but my adrenaline wouldn’t let me let up.
“Whoop that hoe, Pearla!”
“You bet not let her get you on the ground!” Shus screamed.
With everything that had been pent up in me, I threw punches left and right like Neltz had taught me.
My nephew was lethal with the hands and had told me I needed to learn when he was around six.
Plus, my sister didn’t have any bitch in her blood.
If nothing else, we could fight, although I didn’t like to.
“Get this fat bitch off me!” Kaylee yelled as she wildly swung but was missing my face.
That was too bad for her because I wasn’t nearly finished. It wasn’t her that had broken my heart, but she was getting the ass-whooping as if it had been. She should’ve left well enough alone because I had no plans on beating anyone’s ass today.
“Aye, get the fuck off my sister, bitch!”
Kaylee was suddenly snatched up by her hair.
Her titties were free, and her nose was busted from my fist. Matteo stood there, mean-mugging, and had her dangling like a rag doll.
The wig peeled from her edges, dropping her to the ground.
He tossed it in her face, looking at his hand as if he was disgusted.
Knowing my brother, he really was disgusted.
“Get y’all dirty ass from up here. And you,”—He pointed at Kaylee, who was looking like a hot-ass mess with the bald cap on her head and backing up on the floor—“Put yo’ hands on my sister again, yo’ mama gone be buryin’ her second daughter.
You know who the fuck this is, you in here tussling with? ”
“Matteo, it’s okay…” I grabbed his arm.
He grabbed my chin and inspected my face. “How was this hoe able to scratch yo’ face?” His frown deepened. “Bitch, I’ll kill you in here—”
Matteo turned to Kaylee, but I grabbed him. “Brother, no. It’s fine.”
Kaylee screamed and cried. “You wrong, Pearla! I’m his wife! His fucking wife!”
“And you tried to pull the plug on your husband! What kind of wife does that?” I screamed.
“You tried to fucking kill him! Before the doctor could even give us his stats, you were ready to pull the plug, and for what? For money? Insurance? That’s all his life is worth to you?
” I screamed so loud that my voice cracked.
Her friends helped her from the floor. Our guards, who had been blending in with the staff, were now surrounding us and had been the reason the police hadn’t been called.
“He’s gone, Pearla!” She pushed her friends off her. “He is gone! She knows he’s gone.” She looked at Shus. “The doctors know he’s gone. Everybody knows. They are only keeping him alive because of your people’s money!” She scoffed at my brother.
“You don’t know that! Stop speaking that shit into the air!”
“Speakin’ what? Facts! It’s facts! He’s gone.
Let’s face it. We both loved that nigga!
He don’t let too many people get near him, but since he let you, you gotta face the truth.
Grind was a hardbody! It’s been months! Six months!
You don’t think he would have woken up by now?
To come back to me and Rein? To you? We love him, and he loves us both.
I’ve accepted that. It hurts but it’s life. ” Her arms flopped.
“He would have woke up by now! He knows this shit he created is a hot mess! You holding onto a corpse! Let him go so I can put my husband away the proper way, Pearla!”
“Bitch, go eat a dick ‘fo’ I spatter yo’ brains all over this bitch. I can help you get to them pearly gates and see if that nigga up there waitin’ on you. And when I bring my gun out, I’m usin’ it.”
Kaylee’s eyes expanded at Matteo before she and her friends ran out of the hospital, bumping into each other on the way out.
Matteo faced me again, ignoring everyone else. “Don’t listen to that bitch, sis. Bitter, sour pussy-ass hoes say anything. I know a prostitute when I see one, and that’s one.”
I chuckled as my brother wiped the tears from my face using the bottom of his shirt. His cologne burned my eyes, but I didn’t stop him.
“You’re too pretty to be fightin’, Pearla.”
“But she was asking for it.”
“And I could’ve had some hoes come up here and beat them bitches to a pulp. Now we gotta get you a technical shot. Come on, I’ll have the doctor come to the crib.”
Bella giggled at Matteo saying tetanus wrong. If my adrenaline wasn’t still pumping, I would’ve laughed too.
“Teo, nooooo. I’m with my friends. I gotta do something first.”
Matteo looked at Bella, P, and Shus as if he was noticing them for the first time.
My brother, cousin, and daddy always gave me their undivided attention when I was in their space.
The only person who could distract them when I was around was their wives.
That was the love I yearned for, but from the man whom I’d just been fighting over.
“That’s Gracious, Grind’s mama. This is P, Italian’s friend, and you know Bella.”
He jutted his chin at Bella and frowned at P before pointing to Shus. “I’m gone beat yo’ son ass when he wakes up.”
Shus chortled. “Good. I’ll be right behind you to get my licks in.”
Matteo then turned back to me. Sticking his hand in his pocket, he removed a wad of cash and stuffed it in my jacket pocket. He then pulled me into a hug, hooking his arm around my neck.
“Pearla, I’ll kill these hoes behind my blood. Answer the fuckin’ phone when I call, even if it’s just to say, ‘Leave me alone, bitch-ass nigga.’”
Laughing into his chest, I felt my emotions well up but held them in. If I started crying, he’d take me with him. “I’m sorry, brother. We were having fun at Jisei’s.”
“You ain’t sorry for shit. And stop drinking’… You ain’t grown.” Matteo stepped back. “Aye, lil’ nigga. Get my sister back to the spot safely. Matter fact, do twenty miles an hour, that’s royalty right there.”
P stroked his chin. “Heard you.”
Matteo narrowed his eyes. “You gone feel me if another hair is outta place. You was supposed to spray this hospital as soon as a bitch ran up on mine. Strike one.” Matteo held up his index finger as he backed out of the hospital.
Bella was covering her mouth as she laughed while I shook my head. Dating anybody was going to be a hassle that I had already accepted.
“Come on up…” Shus pulled me into her side, her, too, checking my face.
“Next time, I got that Kaylee hoe. You beat her ass, but I owe that bitch too,” Bella vented as she mashed the button to the elevator. We all piled on and took it to the private wing.
Once the doors opened, my heart fell to the soles of my ass. The cold air stung the cuts on my face, and as soon as I got home, I planned to clean my face with peroxide.