Page 27 of Our Mother's Sons

Baela patted the purple satin bonnet on her head to relieve her scalp from an itch. She’d just gotten knotless braids the day before and had me wishing I wasn’t so tender-headed so I could get some. The thing I did most with my hair was wash and go, and I straightened it on special occasions like my birthday and Christmas. That was it. We were truly chilling, so we both were in biker shorts, screen tees, and fuzzy socks. We’d already gotten stuffed on Pluck if you buck meals and were drinking the first of the two bottles of ready-made Lemon Drop we found in the store.

We were supposed to be starting on the showYOU, but had yet to turn the TV on. The sixty-inch on the cream entertainment center had been a Christmas gift from Baela. She fussed about me having it put on the wall but I wanted my damn deposit back when I moved. I made it up in my mind that I would try to find something closer to the beach when my lease was up. I’d been stacking all the money Jovani had been giving me. It was still wild to me that I’d collected over twenty thousand dollars from him in two weeks. Even if he didn’t give me another penny, I could find something around four grand a month on the beach and pay two while adding two from the stash to make up my rent. I could only afford that a year before my lease would be up, but that would be the happiest year of my life.

“First off, please don’t even say that shit. Dutton and Jovani are in two different leagues. Jovani is in the pros and-” she reared her head back as if she smelled shit.

“Dutton isn’t in the league at all. That nigga is in the fucking audience. Matter fact his broke ass can’t afford a ticket. He’s outside the stadium asking for spare change. Bum ass nigga,” she mumbled as she sipped her martini.

“I don’t know. When I saw him at Jonah’s, he looked like he had stumbled upon some money.”

“Yeah, you did say you saw him at Jonah’s, but I got so wrapped up in the part where you freaked the man on the beach that Dutton was forgotten about.”

Usually, anything Dutton did put me in a sour mood, but Jovani had my head so big that the mention of him did nothing to me.

“Yeah, so he was rocking jewelry and name-brand clothes. Oh, and when Jovani put the gun to his head, I saw that his date was pregnant.”

“Wait.”

Baela scooted to the end of the couch to place her glass on the table.

“You told me you got upset because you saw Dutton with a girl. You didn’t tell me the bum had come up, but that ain’t the part of the story I care about. Twin put a gun to his head?” Baela looked like a kid on Christmas waiting for their parents’ okay to rip into their presents.

“He asked me if I wanted him to kill him. I was caught in the moment and said Yeah. He went to his table and made his ass plead for his life. He was bluffing, but I stopped him anyway,” I shrugged, playing off the fact that my panties were soiled off that memory. Jovani had been putting a hurting on my pussy. I hadn’t gotten enough of him, but at the same time, I hadn’t gotten used to him either. My girl was sore right now, and the last time we had sex was two days ago, right before I closed the store.

“Wait wait wait one damn minute!”

Baela stood with her mouth wide open. She placed a hand on her curvy hip and pointed her pink nail at me, which she kept short for work.

“See you always make shit sound boring! You left all that out! He was about to blow that niggas brains out behind that pussy?” She grinned mischievously.

“Girl, he was just showing off,” I waved.

There was no way he was going to kill that man in a packed restaurant, but the fact that he even stepped to him had my body heated. Everything Jovani did turned me on. I needed to reel it in quickly. But how in the hell could I do that when he had a anaconda for a dick, friendly pockets and was always laughing me right out of my panties? Shit. Whoever his baby mama was her dumb ass had fucked up tremendously. I would have never let that man out of my sight. He had custody of his daughter so, her ass had to have been dead or a crackhead or a street runner like my mama and aunt.

“Cousin.”

Baela took a seat but sat closer to me. Knowing her like a book, I downed the rest of my lemon drop because I knew I needed to be buzzed for whatever she was about to say.

“How much do you know about the Bendetti twins?”

Searching her face, she blinked her lash extensions twice while waiting for me to answer.

“I mean, I know he and his brother own businesses. Jonah is one that his brother owns and has some real estate. I know he has a condo in the city and a house on the beach.”I also know he can eat and beat the box like he lives off cardboard.

“When you told me his name, me being the cousin that I am, I asked Riker about him. You know, I had to make sure the nigga wasn’t no psycho or nothing.”

“You didn’t care if he was a psycho when you urged me to leave with him after the club, though,” I sassed.

Picking up the bottle, I refilled our glasses and took a sip from mine. I was going to be good and drunk soon and was going to be pissed if I couldn’t get no dingaling tonight.

“That’s the past. Anyway, I asked, right? Come to find out them niggas are in the streets tough. It was only so much Riker could say over the phone, but I think Riker buys his product from them.”

“So, he sells drugs?”

Baela nodded. I didn’t know how to feel about that. I mean, I had a feeling because he has the persona of a dope boy so I couldn’t say I was too surprised but damn, selling drugs have him living like that?

“Not just sells drugs, he is the drug. The niggas are the plugs. They got a cartel in their pocket overseas that they get the shit from. Riker didn’t tell me that over the phone; he told me that one day during visitation, when I asked about how his operation was still able to run smoothly. That was like a year after him being locked up, but I remember. I also remember him saying his plugs were brothers. Friend that nigga wasn’t acting. If he said he was going to kill Dutton, he was going to kill his ass. He got the city in his pocket. Ausnor has two kings, and Jovani is one of them. The nigga that shares his face is the other. He can do what the fuck he wants and everyone will turn a blind eye.”

My nerves tensed immediately. My mind fluttered away in anxiety as my heart pounded. I didn’t feel a way about Jovani selling drugs but I didn’t think he was the fucking man to see. I’d been fucking that man and cheesing like a school girl when he had all this power and influence. I should have known though because when he enters the store, people gawk at his ass like he was God. I just thought it was due to his dominating persona because he had that.

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