Thug Lovin' (13 page)

“Tasha, how was she looking at me? Wasn’t it dark outside? What the fuck is the matter with you? Where’s the fuckin’ calendar?
You gettin’ ready to come on your period?” He went over to the calendar. She was right on his heels and snatched it off the
wall and threw it at him. He ducked and by reflex grabbed her neck. “What is wrong with you?” He let her neck go, realizing
that he hadn’t meant to grab her. When he let her go she smacked him across the face.

“How dare you put your fuckin’ hands on me? How would you like it if a nigga delivered me a brand-new car? You would be acting
the same way.”

“Nah, I’d be acting much worse.” He grabbed her by the neck again. “Then I’d put some bullets in the nigga. Remember that.”
He tossed her across the bed.

She jumped back up and went to swinging at him. He grabbed her.

Marva was standing in the bedroom doorway. “Tasha, take Caliph. He’s sleepy. Me and the twins will be back. Here’s his teddy
bear.” She laid him on the bed with his favorite bear and left, acting as if they weren’t fighting.

Trae still held her tight. Her body was trembling.

“I don’t want to fight with you in front of my son,” he told her.

“Turn me loose.” Her voice cracked. “You hit me over some bitch?”

“Tasha, you are blowing this shit all out of proportion. First off, I didn’t even hit you. And like I said, I ain’t fuckin’
nobody but you. You know that shit. We shouldn’t even be having this senseless conversation.”

“Why is she sending you gifts, Trae?”

“She obviously thinks a nigga is for sale. And she is probably used to getting whatever she wants. But I told the bitch don’t
be sending me shit and stop calling my house. I told her to send messages through Benny. You know you ain’t got shit to worry
about.” His cell phone began ringing so he turned her loose.

“It better not be that bitch.”

She grabbed the phone out of his hand and looked at the caller ID, recognizing one of the family’s numbers. She threw the
phone at him and headed for the bathroom and turned on the shower. She needed to wash the spray paint off her face and hands.
Plus, totaling the Harley-Davidson had caused her to work up a nice sweat.

Trae sighed as he checked the caller ID. It was Bo.

“What’s up?”

“Damn, I’m happy to hear from you too. You sound like you just got caught creepin’.” Trae just shook his head.
If he only knew.

“What’s up, man?”

“Listen, you were right. That is shorty who had the video camera. The name, the school. Everything matches.”

“Damn,” Trae hissed.

“But yo, her brother wanted to thank you for handling Magnificent. He wanted to know how much you wanted. I told him to just
give us the tape and he did that. So tell me, how did you know it was her?”

“I didn’t. Not until I walked up on her. Y’all already destroyed the tape, right?”

“Of course, nigga! I told you our peeps run that strip.”

“How do we know she had only one?”

“It was only one,” Bo assured him.

Trae ended the call. He knew that his crew was thorough, but damn, it had to be a reason he had run into her. What were the
odds of that happening? His gut was telling him he needed to check shit out for himself.

I
t was comedy night at Club New York, where Kat Williams, Jim Jones along with Juelz Santana, was in the house representing
Dipset. Paul Mooney and Capone the Gangsta of Comedy were preparing to grace the stage. The club was packed to capacity as
Trae, Marvin and Stephon were sitting in Trae’s office, chillin’ while watching the security cameras and monitoring the promoters
who were in charge of the event.

“Why are you so quiet, man?” Stephon asked Trae.

“His little Asian fantasy got his ass in trouble,” Marvin answered for Trae. “That little Chinese hood chick done got a taste
of some thug lovin’ and went crazy. And the sad part is your cousin Tasha don’t even know if Trae fucked her or not. She only
speculatin’.”

“What?” Stephon asked. “Tell me Marvin is exaggerating. What have I been missing?”

“Nigga, you ain’t gotta take my word for it. Tell him, Trae,” Marvin prodded. “Tasha done sent for her sister, had a
girl’s night out
and you know what they do at those. They bash a nigga’s reputation to the ground. I bet you ain’t had no pussy since that
motorcycle shit went down two weeks ago, did you?”

Trae swiveled away from the monitor and faced Marvin. He held up his arms in surrender. “What? Marvin, are you my official
spokesperson now?”

“Nigga, you ain’t sayin’ nothing. And it’s not like I’m lying,” Marvin teased.

“Don’t worry about if I’m fuckin’ her or not,” Trae snapped.

“A Harley? Nigga she done felt your swag. Just come out and say it.” Marvin snickered, refusing to let up.

Stephon started laughing. “But damn, Tasha done sent for her sister? My cousin Trina?” Stephon was still on that part of the
conversation.

Trae swiveled back around to the monitor. “Here she go right here.” He pointed at the screen. Stephon came over to take a
closer look. Tasha, Kyra and Trina were seated at a table in the middle of the floor. There was a bouquet of roses in front
of Tasha and a bucket of ice that held three bottles.

“Damn, look at my lil’ cuz! She is fine! The last time I saw her was back in ’97. She is all growed up. And I guess you sent
the roses? Nice touch!” he said, not giving Trae a chance to answer. “I gotta go say hi to my lil’ cuz.” Stephon’s phone chirped.

“Boss man,” the voice bellowed.

“What’s up?”

“Your attorney is here.” The voice faded out. Trae and Marvin turned to look at Stephon, who had a huge grin on his face.

“Say that again?” Stephon beamed.

“Your attorney is here. Smitty is covering the back area tonight. He’s bringing her up to your office. She got some papers
for you to sign.”

“Tell him to bring her to Trae’s office.” He put the phone on the clip. “I’m so glad y’all niggas moved out here. Y’all keep
shit going.”

“Speak of the little devil,” Marvin smirked.

“You got an office, nigga,” said Trae. “Take that bitch to your office. All I need is for Tasha to come walking up in here.”

A few minutes later there was a knock at the door and Stephon rushed to open it. Charli stood there with her hair up in a
bun, perfect makeup, an all-white Chanel dress and white stilettos. Even her briefcase was white. “Stephon,” Charli greeted
him with a hug. “Marvin.” She held out her hand and smiled as he gently shook it. “Mr. Macklin, I’m glad you’re here. I have
some documents for you to look over. I’m telling you, you are going to love this one. How does a resort sound added to your
investment portfolio?”

Trae swiveled around to face her. “I told you to go through Benny.”

“Benny has been impossible to reach. So here I am.”

Trae stood. “Yo, Marvin and Steph. Let me holla at this girl in private.”

“Not a problem.” Marvin was the first to stand up and leave. Charli handed Stephon a folder. “This is for you.” Stephon took
it and left Trae’s office, closing the door behind him.

“Check this out, shorty. You official on the business tip. And I’m feelin’ your swag. But it ain’t nothing personal between
us. So what’s up? What you want?”

“What do you think I want?”

Trae felt her small hand grab his dick and she wasted no time getting on her knees. “Whoa.” He grabbed her wrist. “I don’t
think you want to do that.”

“Aren’t you the least bit curious?” She massaged his dick right out of his sweatpants, making it stand at attention. Her finger
circled the head with immaculate skill. She then licked the tip, causing the precome to ooze out.

“Yo, you know this is going to cost you, right?”

“Name it,” she said, even though her tongue was already lapping his pole. Trae tried to look back at the monitor to see where
Tasha was. He knew that if she were to walk in at that very moment, the both of them would be taking their last breath, but
he couldn’t see it from where he was standing.

Sensations shot through his body like electricity. He didn’t know what she was doing to his dick but he knew that he didn’t
want her to stop. Watching the door and trying to look back at the monitor wouldn’t allow him to enjoy it.

“Yo.” He grabbed her head. “Get up.”

She looked up at him, slid his dick out of her mouth and smiled.

“Get up.”

She stood and began to unzip her dress.

“You now got me fucked up. My wife is downstairs, so I hope you got your shit off because you gots to go,” he said as he stuffed
his massive hard-on back into his sweats.

“What? Is she coming?”

“That ain’t the point. I said you gots to go.”

“It’s a point if you want to make it one.” She gazed into his eyes as she fixed her dress and then checked her watch. “Well,
I do need to be going, I’m running late. Make sure you and Benny go over that file. You’ll see that the offer is very generous.”
She spoke as if she hadn’t just been on the floor sucking his dick. She then grabbed her briefcase and left.

He grabbed the folder, put it on his desk and headed for the elevators.

Tasha, her sister Trina and Kyra were sitting at a table on the floor enjoying themselves. Tasha had needed to see her sister
so she had sent for her.

“You got some roses, dawg,” Kyra teased Tasha, trying to sound like Tommy from the hit sitcom
Martin.

Tasha waved her off. Kat Williams was mad funny, but he still wasn’t cheering Tasha up. She wished she had followed her gut
and stayed home.

“Don’t look now but somebody is on his way over here,” Trina sang as she watched Trae steal somebody’s chair.

Tasha sighed. She knew she had been hard on Trae the last couple of days since Trina had been in town. Trina was in the guest
bedroom and Tasha was sleeping in there with her. She was actually depressed and was thinking that this California trip had
been the wrong move, marrying Trae had been the wrong move, having three children had been the wrong move. Shit, nothing seemed
to be going her way as far as she was concerned.

Trae set the chair down next to Tasha, who had her legs crossed and her elbow resting on the back of Trina’s chair. Charli
appeared out of nowhere, whispered something in Trae’s ear and sashayed off.

“What’s up, brother-in-law?” Trina smirked. “So that’s the Chinese bitch?” Trina yelled loud enough for her to hear.

“Tasha, let me go beat that ho’s ass,” Kyra pleaded. Tasha waved her off.

Trae ignored them as he pulled Tasha and her chair closer to him. He took his time and lovingly admired his wife. Her hair
was hanging loose in spiral curls. She had on a halter top and a pair of True Religion low-cut jeans with Gucci sandals. She
had on one of his favorite perfumes, Escada. She was stunning to him. And on impulse he planted a soft kiss on her shoulder.

“How long are you going to be mad at me, Tasha?”

She kept her eyes straight ahead, glued on Kat Williams.

“How long, Tasha?”

“Until you tell me what went on between you and that Asian bitch!” she said, still looking straight ahead.

Trae let out a sigh. “What? You want me to make up something so that we can put this shit behind us and move on with our lives?
Is that what you want, Tasha? I mean, come on now. You letting this bitch disrupt our happy home? Ain’t shit to tell you,
Tasha.”

“The bitch just came by and whispered in your ear. And you know what? I’m tired. Too tired to put my foot all up in her ass.
Any other day I would have snatched the bitch up and broke her neck. But for some reason, today I just don’t give a fuck.
So do you, nigga.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Tasha stood up. “C’mon y’all. I’m ready to go.” Kyra and Trina weren’t paying her any attention because Kat Williams had them
slapping each other five and laughing. Kyra had tears running down her cheeks she was laughing so hard.

“Tasha, c’mon, Ma. Don’t be like this.” Trae grabbed her wrist.

“I said c’mon, ladies. It is time to go.”

They both looked at each other and then at Trae and stopped laughing.

Tasha gritted, “Let’s go.”

They both stood up in a hurry. Tasha looked down at Trae’s hand on her wrist and stood up. He looked up at her and snatched
her back down. Kyra and Trina jumped, looked at each other with wide eyes and eased back into their chairs.

“Let this shit go, Tasha,” Trae spat.

“You are hurting my arm, Trae.”

“I’ma hurt more than that if you keep up this fuckin’ unnecessary drama.”

“What you want me to do, act like I’m fine with everything when I’m not?”

“I’m not telling you again, let this shit go. It ain’t nothing.”

“Nothing? I know what I see. And you are going to sit here and insult my intelligence? If you want to be with that bitch,
go right ahead. Just leave me the fuck alone. I’ll be damned if you think you are going to have your cake and eat it too.
Now let go of my arm, Trae. I’m ready to go.”

One of the security guards came over and tapped Trae on the shoulder. He needed to tell him that Charli was waiting for him.
Tasha used the opportunity to snatch away from him, and the three of them marched out of the club with Tasha leading the way.

They made it to Kyra’s car without saying a word. Kyra started it up, and then she and Trina both turned to Tasha, who was
sitting in the backseat with her arms folded across her chest, pouting.

“Ain’t this some shit!” Trina beefed. “I was into some Kat Williams and this trick spoils it.”

“Where to, bitch?” Kyra snapped at Tasha.

“Why are you yelling at me, Kyra?”

“Bitch, hurry up. Don’t you see one of Marvin’s goons behind us? He followed us out here and now he’s on his phone. You better
be glad I got your back,” Kyra told her.

“Just drive and hurry up before Trae decides to come out here and snatch my ass out of this car.”

“Let me call Marvin before he calls me,” Kyra said.

“Just hurry up,” Tasha ordered.

Kyra pressed the speed-dial button. “Hey, baby, it’s me. We left out of the club.”