Page 10 of Are You Going to Love Me

Maximus frowned as he opened the door. “I ain’t do shit. What the fuck y’all want?”

“Nah, you didn’t do nothing?” the officer said with a chuckle, yanking Maximus from the car. “We just got a call that said you and this car were spotted fleeing the scene of a homicide.”

“I ain’t kill nobody and I wasn’t driving! Fuck y’all talking about?” Maximus argued, scanning the area for his brother, but the car of Trae Way Gangstas and Augustus were gone. It became very clear that Augustus had set him up.

Maximus put his hand atop the car and grimaced. Another officer in the back scoffed as he said, “The car ain’t yours, MB? Funny how it’s registered to you.”

The officer who yanked him out of the car patted him down, finding the murder weapon. “We got a gun. Looks like you like being in jail. Didn’t you just get out?”

Maximus didn’t say anything. What could he say that would be any different than what Augustus had done to him? He kept quiet as the cold cuffs were clamped around his wrists and he was shoved into the back of a cop car. The little taste he’d had of freedom had slipped. Being processed back into the jail he just left was amplified as he thought about everything. He wouldn’t be getting out in six months, or even a year, there wouldn’t be shit to come home to and his brother wasn’t his keeper. It was enough to make a grown man cry, but Maximus held his head.

When he was granted his first phone call, he called Keon, knowing he’d answer and wouldn’t say shit to anyone else.

After the prompt introduced the call, Keon spoke. “What the hell, nigga?”

“This shit is recorded, nigga, just listen. You know that spot I showed you last year?”

“Yeah, what about it?”

“Go. Get that stack, take it to my lawyer, he’ll know what to do with it.”

“Anything I can do?”

“You want to be a manager, right? Shop my shit around, get me some buzz. I’m going to be in here for a minute.”

“Aight, holla at me if you need something. I’ll check in.”

“Aight, yeah,” Maximus said, stuck in the middle of a betrayal he never saw coming. “We’ll see.”

four

. . .

“What the fuck is going on?”Eden bellowed as she rushed into the apartment, swarming with police and paramedics.

Through the commotion, Eden could hear Staysha yelling, Aysha crying, and a voice she knew but hadn’t heard in years.

“You can’t take her anywhere!” Staysha screeched. “Who the fuck called you?”

“Momma, you’re coming with me,” Anzel said in a voice as fake as the breasts and butt she put on herself.

Eden pushed through the bodies blocking her entrance to her apartment. Poppi was strapped to a bed; the living room a mess, and rage filled her eyes as she peered up at Anzel. “Poppi, look at me.”

“I’m taking her,” Anzel stated, unable to look at Eden’s face.

Eden ignored her. “Poppi, what’s wrong? Talk to me.”

Poppi’s eyes darted to Eden and softened for just a moment. “I’m sorry.”

“Staysha, what happened to her?” Eden asked because getting an answer out of Aysha, who was sobbing in the corner, was impossible.

“Poppi was sleeping and then Aysha got a call from her,” Staysha said, pointing to their mother. “By the time I woke up and came out here, she was in the living room, waking Poppi up. And then Poppi started fighting.”

“I’m sorry,” Aysha sobbed. “I thought I-”

“Shut up,” Anzel hissed, snapping her fingers. “Get your ass in the car. All that fucking crying.”

Aysha quickly scrambled, grabbing her things and scurrying past Staysha. Eden looked up briefly, tears in her eyes. It was clear that Staysha had torn her up after learning what she’d done.

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